Hawaii Affordable Insurance Exchange Grants Awards List
Hawaii has received three grant awards to build its Affordable Insurance Exchange. This includes a Planning Grant and two Level One Establishment Grants.
Summaries of Hawaii’s applications for each grant are provided below:
Establishment Grant Level One Application Summary
Administrator: Department of Insurance, Office of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
Award Amount: $14,440,144; $61,815,492
Award Date: November 29, 2011; August 23, 2012
Application Due Date: September 30, 2011; June 29, 2012
Level of Funding: Level One
Summary: The Hawaii Department of Insurance will use Level One funding to establish the Hawaii Health Connector (“Connector”). The Connector is the Affordable Insurance Exchange for Hawaii enabled by Act 205 (SLH 2011). The Connector will serve individuals and small businesses throughout the State of Hawaii. The Connector will create a web portal that will make federally qualified health plans available to the public and reduce the number of uninsured in Hawaii.
Hawaii will use its second Level One Establishment Grant to: (1) hire new staff to support outreach as well as public education and other consumer assistance tools needed in The Connector; (2) begin the solicitation process to contract for the design and development of the IT architecture and user experience for individuals and small business; and (3) engage a quality assurance organization for assistance with a program management plan.
State Planning Grant
Awarded September 30, 2010
Administrator: Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
Amount Awarded: $1,000,000
- Conduct background research on the issues related to developing an Exchange.
- Involve stakeholders in the planning process.
- Examine integration of the Exchange with existing programs.
- Assess resource capabilities.
- Consider the appropriate governance mechanism.
- Determine appropriate accounting and reporting guidelines.
- Determine appropriate technical infrastructure.
- Research business operations including implementation issues.
- Examine regulatory and policy aspects.
- Appoint a task force to discuss the issues concerning implementation of an Exchange and receive and process comments from the public.