Health plans prepare for insurance benefits exchanges

A recent study shows that in response to the individual health insurance mandate, many health insurance leaders are preparing or implementing plans to participate in health insurance exchanges. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires the establishment of exchanges to help uninsured Americans obtain affordable coverage.

Audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG polled 130 senior health plan administrators. More than two-thirds said they analyzed the operational impacts and developed a plan of action to become exchange ready. Another 29 percent of respondents said they've started implementing changes to meet the October 2013 deadline to participate. This deadline is also important for state governments, who must form organizations to operate exchanges by that time.

"Clearly, health plan leaders are increasing their focus on the retail side of operations and are moving to put into place the operational pieces required to participate in an exchange and interact directly with consumers," said Joe Parente, KPMG advisory principle. "They are also taking a much closer look at their networks and redefining their strategy to be more competitive."

In other research, KPMG found more than 75 percent of health plan leaders surveyed said their organization's largest growth results from consumer-directed or high deductible plans.