On January 10, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the National Academy of Social Insurance held a webinar that examined states’ health insurance exchange options. Deborah Bae, a senior program officer at RWJF, moderated the webinar and gathered insights from panelists about how states are approaching exchanges and other implementation issues.

On the webinar, Deborah Bachrach and Patricia Boozang discussed their RWJF-funded paper that explores three ways states can comply with the Affordable Care Act's requirement to establish a health insurance exchange in their state: establishing one on their own, defaulting to a federal exchange or creating a hybrid exchange. Their paper, “Federally-Facilitated Exchanges and the Continuum of State Options,” is one of the first examinations of the different exchange models since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued draft regulations in the summer of 2011. Sara Rosenbaum and Trish Riley talked about their RWJF-funded paper, “Building a Relationship between Medicaid, the Exchange and the Individual Insurance Market,” which looked at ways to harmonize exchanges and state Medicaid programs.

Panelists on the webinar included:

• Andy Allison – Director, Arkansas’ Division of Medical Services
• Deborah Bachrach – Special Counsel, Manatt Health Solutions
• Deborah Bae – Program Officer, RWJF
• Patricia Boozang – Managing Director, Manatt Health Solutions
• Heather Howard – Director, RWJF State Health Reform Assistance Network; Princeton University
• Trish Riley – Visiting Fellow and Lecturer in State Health Policy, The George Washington University
• Sara Rosenbaum – Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and Chair, Department of Health Policy, The George Washington University