Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

HHS pilots tool to measure Obamacare plans provider networks

Healthcare IT News: The incredible shrinking provider network is nothing new in marketplace plans. One way insurers have kept premiums in check on the individual market is by reducing the number of providers available in a plan’s network. Earlier this year, the federal government saidthat it would introduce a tool this fall to help consumers who are shopping onHealthCare.gov gauge how narrow a plan’s provider network is compared with others in the area.

But most consumers who want that information will have to wait at least another year. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that the pilot project to test the network breadth tool just got a little, well, narrower.

Read article