BIG NEWS FOR ROBOTS!
July 1 has garnered much attention as the date when Health Plan Sponsors are required to publicly post machine readable transparency in pricing information. Fully insured group and individual plans will likely
be in compliance vis a vis their insurer. Less clear is the path toward compliance for self-funded plans.
Either way, allow me to directly quote ‘guidance’ provided this week by one of our health insurers:
“A machine readable file is a digital representation of data or information in a file that can be imported or read by a computer system for further processing without human intervention.
These files follow the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) defined layout and are in the CMS approved format (JSON) and are not meant for a consumer-friendly search of rates, benefits, or cost sharing.”
Hold on a sec. I want to check my Tips ‘Subscriber’ database . . . . .
. . . . . OK, I’m back. Thought so. Neither C-3PO nor R2-D2 are there.
Thanks, Uncle Sam.
Much ado about nothing. (Again!)
P.S. Apparently yous guys ain’t payin’ attention; l skipped from Tip 550 to 552 last week!! It was a test. (COUGH.)
