Arkansas Affordable Insurance Exchange Grants Awards List
Arkansas has received two grant awards to build its Affordable Insurance Exchange. This includes a Planning Grant and a Level One Establishment Grant.
Summaries of Arkansas’ applications for each grant are provided below:
Establishment Grant Level One Application Summary
Administrator: Arkansas Insurance Department
Award Amount: $7,665,483
Application Due Date: December 30, 2011
Level of Funding: Level One
Summary: Arkansas intends to build on its Exchange planning progress to design and implement key components of the Federally-facilitated Exchange Partnership Model in Arkansas. Using Establishment Grant funding, Arkansas proposes to design and implement automation to connect Arkansas Medicaid and appropriate State-run Exchange functions with the Federally-facilitated Exchange Eligibility and Enrollment portal; design, develop, and implement operations and information systems to support State-operated Federally-facilitated Exchange Consumer Assistance functions including outreach, education, and the Navigator Program; and design, develop, and automate State-operated Plan Management functions of the Federally-facilitated Exchange including Qualified Health Plan certification, rating, monitoring, and evaluation to effect continuous quality improvement. These activities will continue to be done in collaboration with state partners and informed by input from stakeholders. Arkansas also plans to design a temporary reinsurance program.
State Planning Grant
Awarded September 30, 2010
Administrator: Arkansas Insurance Department
Amount Awarded: $1,000,000
Award Supplement: $200,928 (March 8, 2012)
- The planning process will be guided by principles of consumer protection, stakeholder inclusion, integrated systems, quality, and cost-efficiency.
- Create an interagency executive planning team.
- Secure assistance with research and analyses that will allow Arkansas to make informed planning decisions.
- Create a final report which will include recommendations about:
- Governance and administrator of the Arkansas Exchange.
- Policy/regulatory needs including benefit standards, incentives, reporting, and monitoring requirements.
- Existing technology and infrastructure to support Exchange operations.
- Methods and costs for integrating Exchange eligibility and enrollment processes with those for Medicaid and other emerging health reform initiatives.
- A start-up business/operations plan and five year sustainability plan for Arkansas’s Exchange.
- Conduct background market research, Exchange Planning Meetings, and fund the staff necessary to support these efforts.
- Design and implement key components of the Federally-facilitated Exchange Partnership Model in Arkansas.