Maryland Affordable Insurance Exchange Grants Awards List
Maryland has received four grant awards to build its Affordable Insurance Exchange. This includes a Planning Grant, an Early Innovator Grant, a Level One Establishment Grant, and a Level Two Establishment Grant.
Summaries of Maryland’s applications for each grant are provided below:
Establishment Grant Level Two Application Summary
Administrator: Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Award Amount: $123,048,693
Award Date: August 23, 2012
Application Due Date: June 29, 2012
Level of Funding: Level Two
Summary: On behalf of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) is receiving a Level Two Establishment grant to accomplish the necessary activities to achieve certification by January 2013 and begin enrolling individuals through a state-based exchange for coverage effective January 1, 2014. Specifically, the funding will enable the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange to meet the rapid implementation requirements of the ACA including IT systems, business operations, and program integration with state and federal agencies, stakeholder engagement, consumer assistance, as well as outreach and education.
Establishment Grant Level One Application Summary
Administrator: Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Award Amount: $27,186,749
Award Date: August 12, 2011
Application Due Date: June 30, 2011
Level of Funding: Level One
Summary: Maryland will conduct policy development and detailed planning to build on the work of Maryland’s Exchange Planning Grant and Maryland’s Innovator Grant. The Level One Establishment Grant will result in data-driven and intensive policy analysis that will shape the technical and operational infrastructure of the Exchange. In addition, the activities performed with this funding will result in the rapid implementation of the Exchange IT platform, including product licensing, system integration, and independent verification and validation. The IT platform will be flexible to respond to forthcoming federal guidance and ongoing policymaking and input from Maryland stakeholders.
Early Innovator Grant
Grantee: Maryland Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene
Award Amount: $6,227,454
Maryland proposes to build off a prototype it has already developed that models the point of access for the Exchange, integration with Maryland legacy systems and the federal portal systems, and Maryland's consumption of planned federal web services (e.g. verification and rules). The technology foundation used by Maryland in its Healthy Maryland initiative is currently being used by several other states. This “point” solution will extend the existing Healthy Maryland platform, which was recently implemented.
State Planning Grant
Awarded September 30, 2010
Administrator: Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
Amount Awarded: $999,227
- Utilize the previously established Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council to outline issues pertaining to: engaging the public, gathering and analyzing public comment, conducting focused research, and developing options for consideration by the Coordinating Council.
- Create an information infrastructure plan that assesses existing information systems, identifies gaps and needs, and proposes strategies to achieve seamless eligibility and enrollment in health coverage.
- Develop an outreach and communications strategy for 2011-2014, including market research to guide the design of the Exchange
- Fund Maryland-specific studies of public and private health insurance coverage and health care expenditures to determine whether to merge the individual and small group markets and whether to provide additional protection against adverse selection, development of governance options for the successful operation of the Exchange, and development of operational plans and a sustainable business model for the Exchange.
- Assess current public sector technological capabilities, current private sector technological capabilities and technology solutions that may be available from the federal government.
- Determine whether the existing public or private sector capacity could be adapted for online public access to facilitate eligibility determination, choice of coverage, application, enrollment, the specific options for connecting an eligibility determination system with other components of the Exchange, and develop an RFP for eligibility system expansion or acquisition.