The Department of Health and Human Services announced late this afternoon that next year's open enrollment period will begin on November 1, 2015, and end on January 31, 2016. This is a change from the original proposed dates of October 1 through December 15, 2015, and a change greatly welcomed by NAHU. Our association strongly lobbied the Administration for a date change (including a direct plea to Secretary Burwell in a small meeting by your Washington Update author) with the rationale that a compressed timeframe during a notoriously busy time of year that was identical to the Medicare annual election period would not give agents enough time to directly help consumers. We also stressed that having the open enrollment period extend into the new coverage year will give consumers a better chance to coordinate with employer sponsored coverage offerings and also test drive their plans and potentially make a change if something is not working well in January.

This news was released as part of the final letter to issuers for 2016 and the final notice of payment parameters for 2016. We are still reading the new payment parameters rule, but redeterminations/auto renewal for exchange plans also will be scrapped for the years ahead. We'll have a full analysis of the new final rule for you next week.