The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is hosting regional listening sessions regarding essential health benefits. You are invited to attend the sessions. HHS is committed to receiving broad public input on essential health benefits from all stakeholders. Senior HHS officials will be in attendance to listen to stakeholder feedback. Please see below for the table for further details.
Region | City | Date | Time | Location | RSVP Info |
5 | Chicago | 4-Nov | 9:30 AM- noon | 233 N Michigan Ave, 13th floor (Room 1329) Chicago, IL 60601 |
by 1-Nov |
1 | Boston | 8-Nov | 1-3 PM | John F. Kennedy Federal Building 15 New Sudbury St., Conference Room 2075 (20th floor) Boston, MA 02203 |
by 4-Nov |
3 | Philadelphia | 8-Nov | 10 AM -noon | Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West, Conference Rm 419, Philadelphia, PA 19106 |
by 2-Nov |
6 | Dallas | 9-Nov | 10 AM – noon | Center for Community Cooperation, 2900 Live Oak Street, Dallas, TX 75204 |
by 4-Nov |
2 | New York | 14-Nov | 10 AM – noon | 26 Federal Plaza, Suite 3835 New York, New York 10278 |
by 9-Nov |
7 | Kansas City | 15-Nov | 10 AM – noon | Bolling Federal Office Building 8th Floor SSA Conference Room 601 E. 12th Street Kansas City, MO 64106 |
by 10-Nov |
4 | Atlanta | 16-Nov | 10 AM – noon | 61 Forsyth St. SW, Suite 5B95, Atlanta, GA 30303-8909 |
by 14-Nov |
10 | Seattle | 17-Nov | 2 – 5 PM | Jackson Federal Building, 915 2nd Ave, South Auditorium, Seattle, WA | Viveta.VanderSanden@hhs.gov by 14-Nov |
8 | Denver | 18-Nov | 9 AM – noon | 999 18th St. South Terrace, Suite 400 Denver, CO 80202 |
by 10-Nov |
9 | San Francisco | 21-Nov | 3 – 5 PM | 90 Seventh Street, Suite 5-100 San Francisco, CA 94103 |
by 15-Nov |
The Affordable Care Act ensures Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance. To achieve this goal, the law ensures plans offered in the new Affordable Insurance Exchanges offer a package of essential health benefits, which are to be defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The statute directs the Secretary to consider the scope of benefits provided under a typical employer plan in defining essential health benefits. To inform the Department, HHS received a survey of employer-sponsored coverage conducted by the Department of Labor as well as recommendations from the Institute of Medicine on the criteria and methods for defining and updating essential health benefits.
If you plan to attend the session, we ask that you consider these questions in preparing your comments:
- In keeping with the title of the Institute of Medicine report “Essential Health Benefits—Balancing Coverage and Cost”, how can the Department best meet the dual goals of balancing the comprehensiveness of coverage included in essential health benefits and affordability?
- How might the Department ensure that essential health benefits reflect an appropriate balance among the categories so that they are not unduly weighted toward any category?
- What policy principles and criteria should be taken into account to prevent discrimination against individuals because of their age, disability status, or expected length of life as the Affordable Care Act requires?
- What models should HHS consider in developing essential health benefits?
- What criteria should be used to update essential health benefits over time and what should the process be for their modification?
To register for the event, please send an email with your name, organization, title, email address and phone number to the designated RSVP by the RSVP Due Date listed above. (NOTE: In some locations, RSVPs are needed for building security and will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis)