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Statement of Need: The Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of Labor and the Treasury Department, will issue interim final rules to implement the information disclosure provisions in section 2715A of the Public Health Service Act, as added by the Affordable Care Act. This regulation will improve the transparency of information about how health coverage works so consumers will have better information to use and assess the coverage they have now, and/or make choices among different coverage options.

Summary of the Legal Basis: Title I, subtitle A, section 1001 of the Affordable Care Act adds section 2715A to the Public Health Service Act that will require group health plans and health insurance issuers to make certain disclosures to the Secretary, the State insurance commissioner, the public, and in some cases, individuals.

Alternatives: None--statutory requirement.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits: HHS estimates the benefits of this regulation to come from improved information for consumers and regulators, which will in tern result in a more efficient insurance market. Improved information for consumers will allow them to make better health insurance choices -- to choose higher quality insurers and ones that more closely match their preferences with respect to plan design. This could result in increased satisfaction and decreased morbidity. In addition, consumers may be more likely to choose insurers with more efficient processes, which could result in a reduction in administrative costs. Improved information for regulators will allow for monitoring of the markets to track current industry practices, which will allow for better enforcement of current market regulations through more targeted audits that are based upon insurer responses. Additionally, reporting requirements and the threat of targeted audit will likely influence issuer behavior to motivate compliance. I is not possible to quantify the benefits at this time. The direct costs imposed by the regulation are reporting requirements. These requirements are still being developed, and will be quantified in the regulation.