Health and Human Services Extends State Exchange Deadline

The deadline for state exchanges — that decision on whether to build online health insurance markets — has been extended.

Originally, that deadline had been today, 16 November. However, that deadline is now 14 December for states to submit letters of intent on how they plan to proceed.

“We are committed to providing states with the flexibility, resources and time they need to deliver the benefits of the health care law to the American people,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote Thursday to the Republican Governors Association (RGA). “We will continue to work directly with individual states to address their particular questions and concerns.”

The RGA is the organization behind the approved deadline extension. They submitted their official extension request on Wednesday, two days before the deadline. The RGA wanted to make sure that HHS had had a chance to publish rules detailing how the exchanges would work.

Seven states remain undecided on whether to build state-based exchanges — Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Idaho, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Arizona and Wisconsin. The remaining 43 indicated they planned to partner with the federal government to run the exchanges, or to allow the federal government to do it.