A Health Insurance Exchange is a marketplace for individuals and businesses to compare, choose, and buy affordable health insurance for high quality care.  An Exchange can make health care easier to navigate for consumers and small businesses.  It can allow Minnesotans to easily compare health insurance options based on cost, quality, and consumer satisfaction.  It can also foster fair and equitable competition to encourage insurers and health care providers to place a greater focus on value and affordability.

An Exchange is an online marketplace where Minnesotans can purchase private health insurance or enroll in public programs like Medical Assistance and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  Subsidies and tax credits will be available to eligible individuals and small businesses to make coverage more affordable.

An Exchange can help small businesses provide affordable coverage choices to their workers and allow employees to choose the plan that is best for them and their families.  Employees will be able to use contributions from one or more employers to purchase coverage for them and their families and keep that coverage if they become self-employed, lose their job, or if they change jobs. An Exchange can also simplify the administration of health insurance for small businesses and allow them to focus on growing their business instead of managing health insurance.

Coverage through an Exchange would start effective January 1, 2014.  States have until January 1, 2013 to create their own health insurance exchanges or the federal government will establish one for a state.

An Exchange would perform a number of functions, including:

• Operating a toll-free hotline and website for providing information
• Ensuring that health insurance plans meet certain standards (for example, related to marketing, access to health care providers, and reporting on quality of care)
• Providing information in a standard format to help consumers compare insurance companies and benefit plans
• Determining eligibility for individual premium tax credits, cost-sharing  assistance, and coverage requirement exemptions
• Determining eligibility for Medical Assistance
• Determining eligibility for small business premium tax credits
• Providing real-time enrollment in health benefit plans
• Making an electronic calculator available to display the cost of coverage
• Communicating with employers regarding employee tax credit eligibility, cancellation of coverage, etc.
• Establishing a Navigator program that connects Minnesotans with an individual or organization who assists consumers and businesses to navigate an Exchange.

An Exchange would be available to be used by individual consumers and small businesses with up to 100 employees when it opens for enrollment effective January 1, 2014.  Minnesota may limit small business eligibility to those with less than 50 employees prior to 2016, but this decision has not yet been made.  Large employers may be allowed to participate in 2017.

A Health Insurance Exchange is a marketplace for individuals and businesses to compare, choose, and buy affordable health insurance for high quality care. An Exchange can make health care easier to navigate for consumers and small businesses. It can allow Minnesotans to easily compare health insurance options based on cost, quality, and consumer satisfaction. It can also foster fair and equitable competition to encourage insurers and health care providers to place a greater focus on value and affordability.

An Exchange is an online marketplace where Minnesotans can purchase private health insurance or enroll in public programs like Medical Assistance and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Subsidies and tax credits will be available to eligible individuals and small businesses to make coverage more affordable.

An Exchange can help small businesses provide affordable coverage choices to their workers and allow employees to choose the plan that is best for them and their families. Employees will be able to use contributions from one or more employers to purchase coverage for them and their families and keep that coverage if they become self-employed, lose their job, or if they change jobs. An Exchange can also simplify the administration of health insurance for small businesses and allow them to focus on growing their business instead of managing health insurance.

Coverage through an Exchange would start effective January 1, 2014. States have until January 1, 2013 to create their own health insurance exchanges or the federal government will establish one for a state.

An Exchange would perform a number of functions, including:

• Operating a toll-free hotline and website for providing information
• Ensuring that health insurance plans meet certain standards (for example, related to marketing, access to health care providers, and reporting on quality of care).
• Providing information in a standard format to help consumers compare insurance companies and benefit plans
• Determining eligibility for individual premium tax credits, cost-sharing assistance, and coverage requirement exemptions
• Determining eligibility for Medical Assistance
• Determining eligibility for small business premium tax credits
• Providing real-time enrollment in health benefit plans
• Making an electronic calculator available to display the cost of coverage
• Communicating with employers regarding employee tax credit eligibility, cancellation of coverage, etc.
• Establishing a Navigator program that connects Minnesotans with an individual or organization who assists consumers and businesses to navigate an Exchange.

An Exchange would be available to be used by individual consumers and small businesses with up to 100 employees when it opens for enrollment effective January 1, 2014. Minnesota may limit small business eligibility to those with less than 50 employees prior to 2016, but this decision has not yet been made. Large employers may be allowed to participate in 2017. 

Yes.  Open enrollment would begin in the fall of 2013.

The state is working with all stakeholders to plan and develop a Minnesota exchange.  Minnesota received a $1 million planning grant in February 2011. This grant funded actuarial and economic research on the market impact of an Exchange, the development of an IT Infrastructure, Request for Proposals for prototypes to evaluate technical options and costs for an Exchange, and initial work to assess the operations of an Exchange.

Minnesota received a $4.2 million grant in August 2011 to support the design and development of a Minnesota Exchange. The grant funds the creation of an initial structure with human and other resources to support the design and development of an Exchange, development of technical infrastructure, and stakeholder engagement to help craft the design of an Exchange through an Advisory Task Force and other public forums.

The task force will advise the Commissioner of Commerce on the design and development of a Minnesota Health Insurance Exchange. Task force members have been appointed and a list can be found here.

The task force will provide guidance and recommendations on a number of policy, technical and operational issues, including, but not limited to:

• Size of the small group market
• Merger of the individual and small group markets
• Provisions to avoid adverse selection
• Risk adjustment
• Cost, quality, and satisfaction rating for health insurers and health benefit plans
• Navigator/broker provisions
• Technical infrastructure
• Exchange operations
• Long-term governance
• Ongoing funding mechanisms

A Request for Proposal (RFP) was released at the end of June 2011 for prototypes to evaluate technical options and costs for an Exchange. This RFP is structured to gather innovative, flexible, and interoperable designs that can accommodate various policy decisions. The RFP is a two-stage “proof of concept” approach.  In Stage I, respondents are asked to propose prototypes for technical components of an Exchange. Successful respondents will be awarded stipends to create these prototypes and detailed cost, work plan and timeline proposals. In Stage II these prototypes and detailed cost, work plan and timeline proposals will be evaluated and possibly selected for future Exchange establishment. Respondents were asked to propose prototypes for the entire Exchange, or for one or more specific component modules. There are eight component modules including:

1.    Individual eligibility and exemption
2.    Individual enrollment
3.    Small employer eligibility and enrollment
4.    Health benefit plan and navigator/broker certification and display
5.    Provider display
6.    Fund aggregation and payment
7.    Account administration
8.    Mobile application or accessibility

We received a total of 14 responses to the RFP.  Some of those responses included partnerships between multiple companies.  In those cases, the lead company is listed. The following companies responded to the RFP: BSwift, Ceridian, Curam, Deloitte, Extend Health Inc., GetInsured.com, hCentive, Health Management Systems Inc., IBM, Infosys, Maximus, Oracle, Xerox ACS, and 4Point.

In June 2011, Minnesota published a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a two-staged, proof of concept approach to evaluate IT infrastructure options and costs for an Exchange with Planning Grant funds. During stage one, RFP respondents proposed prototypes for a fully functioning Exchange technical infrastructure and/or specific component modules. Successful respondents – Ceridian, Curam, Deloitte, Maximus and Getinsured.com – were awarded contracts with stipends under Planning Grant funds to create proposals including prototypes, detailed cost estimates, work plans, and timeline proposals for potential implementation in stage two. The proposals and prototypes for stage two are due in December 2011. The prototypes will be available for public viewing in December 2011.

In August 2011, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) issued a request for information as a first step toward modernizing many of the systems, that support health care, child and family services, and chemical and mental health services.  The request for information (RFI) was issued as the first phase of an initiative to streamline technologies that will help achieve better outcomes at lower cost.  This modernization will take place in coordination with Exchange planning activities.  DHS will be able to leverage $20 million in federal money to fund the initiative. The federal government provided a 90-to-10 match for states to streamline their eligibility processes. The Minnesota Legislature approved a $2.5 million appropriation in the 2011-2012 state budget to allow DHS to access the federal dollars. View the request for information.

Updates will be posted on this website.  Please check back regularly for updates.