HHS grants $220M for HIEs

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded 13 states nearly $220 million in Affordable Insurance Exchange grants to help them create fully operational online exchanges by 2014 that individuals and small businesses will use to select health insurance plans. The recently announced Affordable Insurance Exchange grants bring to 29 the number of states HHS deems as having made significant progress in developing these exchanges. The new states receiving funding are: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Vermont.