New Fact Sheets Available to Help Consumers with Marketplace Questions

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released some easy-to-understand consumer fact sheets for those who are enrolling or who have newly enrolled in healthcare plans through the Marketplace. These fact sheets are great resources for organizations working to help people living with HIV/AIDS and others apply and enroll in healthcare coverage through the Marketplace.

• What You Should Know About Provider Networks—This fact sheet explains the difference between various provider networks and how you can find out if your healthcare provider is covered under a plan’s network before you buy a healthcare plan.
• What You Should Know About Seeing Your Doctor—This fact sheet explains how you can find out if your healthcare provider is covered under your new healthcare plan and what to do if he or she isn’t. It also discusses how to find a provider if you don’t already have one.
• What To Know About Getting Your Prescription Medications—This fact sheet explains how you can find out which prescriptions are covered through your new healthcare plan and what to do if you find out that one or more of your prescribed drugs are not covered.
• Appealing Your Insurers’ Decision Not to Pay—This fact sheet describes your right to ask for an appeal if your new healthcare plan does not cover your specific healthcare provider or service, and explains the process for doing so.
• Getting Emergency Care—This fact sheet describes what you should do if you need emergency care and explains that insurance companies can’t charge you more for getting emergency room services at an “out-of-network” hospital.
• What You Should Know About Early Renewal of Health Coverage—This fact sheet explains what benefits may or may not be covered under existing healthcare plans that were renewed in late 2013.
• I Signed Up, But Don’t Have Health Coverage. What Should I Do?—This fact sheet addresses those who think they have signed up for healthcare coverage in the Marketplace but who have not yet received an insurance card or are experiencing other issues.

For additional consumer-focused fact sheets and other resources, visit CMS’s resources page. Open enrollment in the Marketplace continues until March 31, 2014.