MORE Health Education Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1872 To amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to provide for Federal Exchange outreach and educational activities, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 12, 2021 Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER (for herself and Ms. SCANLON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to provide for Federal Exchange outreach and edu- cational activities, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Marketing and Out- 4 reach Restoration to Empower Health Education Act of 5 2021’’ or the ‘‘MORE Health Education Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1872.IH H1872 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1872 IH SEC. 2. FEDERAL EXCHANGE OUTREACH AND EDU- 1 CATIONAL ACTIVITIES. 2 Section 1321(c) of the Patient Protection and Afford- 3 able Care Act (42 U.S.C. 18041(c)) is amended by adding 4 at the end the following new paragraphs: 5 ‘‘(3) OUTREACH AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVI- 6 TIES.— 7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In the case of an Ex- 8 change established or operated by the Secretary 9 within a State pursuant to this subsection, the 10 Secretary shall carry out outreach and edu- 11 cational activities for purposes of informing po- 12 tential enrollees in qualified health plans offered 13 through the Exchange of the availability of cov- 14 erage under such plans and financial assistance 15 for coverage under such plans. Such outreach 16 and educational activities shall be provided in a 17 manner that is culturally and linguistically ap- 18 propriate to the needs of the populations being 19 served by the Exchange (including hard-to- 20 reach populations, such as racial and sexual mi- 21 norities, limited English proficient populations, 22 and young adults). 23 ‘‘(B) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.—No 24 funds appropriated under this paragraph shall 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1872.IH H1872 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1872 IH be used for expenditures for promoting non- 1 ACA compliant health insurance coverage. 2 ‘‘(C) NON-ACA COMPLIANT HEALTH IN- 3 SURANCE COVERAGE.—For purposes of this 4 subparagraph (B): 5 ‘‘(i) The term ‘non-ACA compliant 6 health insurance coverage’ means health 7 insurance coverage, or a group health plan, 8 that is not a qualified health plan. 9 ‘‘(ii) Such term includes the following: 10 ‘‘(I) An association health plan. 11 ‘‘(II) Short-term limited duration 12 insurance. 13 ‘‘(D) FUNDING.—Out of any funds in the 14 Treasury not otherwise appropriated, there are 15 hereby appropriated for fiscal year 2023 and 16 each subsequent fiscal year, $100,000,000 to 17 carry out this paragraph. Funds appropriated 18 under this subparagraph shall remain available 19 until expended. 20 ‘‘(4) ANNUAL ENROLLMENT TARGETS.—For 21 plan year 2022 and each subsequent plan year, in 22 the case of an Exchange established or operated by 23 the Secretary within a State pursuant to this sub- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1872.IH H1872 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1872 IH section, the Secretary shall establish annual enroll- 1 ment targets for such Exchange for such year.’’. 2 SEC. 3. IMPROVING TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY 3 IN THE MARKETPLACE. 4 (a) OPEN ENROLLMENT REPORTS.—For plan year 5 2022 and each subsequent year, the Secretary of Health 6 and Human Services (referred to in this section as the 7 ‘‘Secretary’’), in coordination with the Secretary of the 8 Treasury and the Secretary of Labor, shall issue biweekly 9 public reports during the annual open enrollment period 10 on the performance of the federally facilitated Exchange 11 operated pursuant to section 1321(c) of the Patient Pro- 12 tection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 18041(c)). 13 Each such report shall include a summary, including in- 14 formation on a State-by-State basis where available, of— 15 (1) the number of unique website visits; 16 (2) the number of individuals who create an ac- 17 count; 18 (3) the number of calls to the call center; 19 (4) the average wait time for callers contacting 20 the call center; 21 (5) the number of individuals who enroll in a 22 qualified health plan; and 23 (6) the percentage of individuals who enroll in 24 a qualified health plan through each of— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1872.IH H1872 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1872 IH (A) the website; 1 (B) the call center; 2 (C) navigators; 3 (D) agents and brokers; 4 (E) the enrollment assistant program; 5 (F) directly from issuers or web brokers; 6 and 7 (G) other means. 8 (b) OPEN ENROLLMENT AFTER ACTION REPORT.— 9 For plan year 2022 and each subsequent year, the Sec- 10 retary, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury 11 and the Secretary of Labor, shall publish and make public 12 an after action report not later than 3 months after the 13 completion of the annual open enrollment period regarding 14 the performance of the Exchange described in subsection 15 (a) for the applicable plan year. Each such report shall 16 be public and include a summary, including information 17 on a State-by-State basis where available, of— 18 (1) the open enrollment data reported under 19 subsection (a) for the entirety of the enrollment pe- 20 riod; and 21 (2) activities related to patient navigators de- 22 scribed in section 1311(i) of the Patient Protection 23 and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 18031(i)), in- 24 cluding— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1872.IH H1872 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1872 IH (A) the performance objectives established 1 by the Secretary for such patient navigators; 2 (B) the number of consumers enrolled by 3 such a patient navigator; 4 (C) an assessment of how such patient 5 navigators have met established performance 6 metrics, including a detailed list of all patient 7 navigators, funding received by patient naviga- 8 tors, and whether established performance ob- 9 jectives of patient navigators were met; and 10 (D) with respect to the performance objec- 11 tives described in subparagraph (A)— 12 (i) whether such objectives assess the 13 full scope of patient navigator responsibil- 14 ities, including general education, plan se- 15 lection, and determination of eligibility for 16 tax credits, cost-sharing reductions, or 17 other coverage; 18 (ii) how the Secretary worked with pa- 19 tient navigators to establish such objec- 20 tives; and 21 (iii) how the Secretary adjusted such 22 objectives for case complexity and other 23 contextual factors. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1872.IH H1872 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1872 IH (c) REPORT ON ADVERTISING AND CONSUMER OUT- 1 REACH.—Not later than 3 months after the completion of 2 the annual open enrollment period for plan year 2022, the 3 Secretary shall issue a public report on advertising and 4 outreach to consumers for the open enrollment period for 5 plan year 2022. Such report shall include a description 6 of— 7 (1) the division of spending on individual adver- 8 tising platforms, including television and radio ad- 9 vertisements and digital media, to raise consumer 10 awareness of open enrollment; 11 (2) the division of spending on individual out- 12 reach platforms, including email and text messages, 13 to raise consumer awareness of open enrollment; and 14 (3) whether the Secretary conducted targeted 15 outreach to specific demographic groups and geo- 16 graphic areas. 17 (d) PROMOTING TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNT- 18 ABILITY IN THE ADMINISTRATION’S EXPENDITURES OF 19 EXCHANGE USER FEES.—For plan year 2022 and each 20 subsequent plan year, not later than the date that is 3 21 months after the end of such plan year, the Secretary of 22 Health and Human Services shall submit to the appro- 23 priate committees of Congress and make available to the 24 public an annual report on the expenditures by the De- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1872.IH H1872 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 1872 IH partment of Health and Human Services of user fees col- 1 lected pursuant to section 156.50 of title 45, Code of Fed- 2 eral Regulations (or any successor regulations). Each such 3 report for a plan year shall include a detailed accounting 4 of the amount of such user fees collected during such plan 5 year and of the amount of such expenditures used during 6 such plan year for the federally facilitated Exchange oper- 7 ated pursuant to section 1321(c) of the Patient Protection 8 and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 18041(c)) on out- 9 reach and enrollment activities, navigators, maintenance 10 of Healthcare.gov, and operation of call centers. 11 (e) STUDIES AND REPORTS.—Not later than 30 days 12 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 13 of Health and Human Services shall release to Congress 14 all aggregated documents relating to studies and data sets 15 that were created on or after January 1, 2014, and related 16 to marketing and outreach with respect to qualified health 17 plans offered through Exchanges under title I of the Pa- 18 tient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 19 18001 et seq.). 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:12 May 11, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1872.IH H1872 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS