In This Issue:

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); Other HHS and Federal Regulatory Initiatives; Other Congressional and State Initiatives; Other Health Care News; and Hearings & Mark-ups Scheduled

Excerpt from Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

On May 15th HHS launched a new web-based tool to track the performance of the nation’s health care system. The tool provides access to data from across federal agencies on a number of topics, such as access to care, cost and affordability, prevention and health information technology.

On May 16th HHS’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) made several announcements and released documents related to the ACA’s Health Insurance Exchanges. First, the Department announced that six states will receive more than $181 million in grants to help implement Exchanges. CCIIO also released a document providing an outline of how it intends to run a federally-facilitated Exchange in states that do not choose to run their own. Finally, it also released a draft "blueprint" showing what states seeking to run their own exchanges will be required to demonstrate in order to get approval.