The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) monitoring of the consumer governed, nonprofit health insurance issuers--known as consumer operated and oriented plans (CO-OPs)--evolved as the CO-OP program matured, and as 12 of the 23 CO-OPs ceased operations on or before January 1, 2016. CMS's initial monitoring activities, starting when it began to award CO-OP program loans in early 2012, f

In June 2008, GAO reported that its case-study analysis of unbilled patient services at 18 medical centers, including 10 medical centers with low billing performance and 8 medical centers under VA's Consolidated Patient Account Centers (CPAC) initiative considered to be high performers, found documentation, coding, and billing errors and inadequate management oversight that resulted in unbilled a

Our review found articles that measured the extent of concentration in private health insurance markets or focused on the relationship between competition in these markets and other variables, though the findings of these studies should be interpreted with caution. Several articles identified through our review examined the extent of concentration in private health insurance markets, though this

CMS provided guidance to states about activities to minimize crowd-out in SCHIP, and the information it collected was of limited use in assessing the extent to which crowd-out should be a concern. Along with this guidance, CMS instituted specific requirements for certain program designs it identified as being at greater risk of crowd-out, including programs with higher income eligibility threshol

The following themes were highlighted by participants: (1) Improve income supports to families--Participants noted a range of issues facing some families and their children, including intermittent work, low-wage jobs, and deep poverty. This raised concerns that many children face significant instability in their lives, such as frequent moves, changing child care arrangements, and unstable family

GAO's case study analysis of unbilled patient encounters at 18 medical centers, including 10 medical centers with low billing performance and 8 medical centers under VA's Consolidated Patient Account Centers (CPAC) initiative considered to be high performers, found documentation, coding, and billing errors and inadequate management oversight for approximately $1.7 billion deemed unbillable in fis

GAO found that the number of individuals participating in HSA-eligible high-deductible health plans and HSAs increased significantly since 2004. A series of health insurance carrier surveys reported that the number of lives covered by HSA-eligible plans increased significantly from about 438,000 in September 2004 to an estimated 6.1 million in January 2008. GAO's analysis of IRS data showed that

The number of individuals participating in HSA-eligible health plans and HSAs increased significantly between 2004 and 2007; however, in all years, many HSA-eligible plan enrollees did not open an HSA. The number of individuals covered by HSA-eligible plans increased significantly between September 2004 and January 2007--from about 438,000 to approximately 4.5 million, according to industry estim

About 80 percent of college students aged 18 through 23 had health insurance in 2006. While 67 percent of college students were covered through employer-sponsored plans, 7 percent were covered through other private health insurance plans, such as student insurance plans, and 6 percent were covered by public programs, such as Medicaid. Most insured students were covered, for example, as a dependen

The discussion sessions focused on three interrelated topics: cost and personal responsibility; coverage of the uninsured; and quality, standards, and outcomes. The keynote speech focused on related policy challenges. The following are highlights from these discussions and the participant poll. The proceedings are not intended to reflect the views of GAO. Health care spending. Participants did no