NABIP will ‘go on the offense’ regarding public policy in 2024

By Susan Rupe

The CEO of the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals wants to see 2024 as the year in which the association is “responsive and not reactive.”

Jessica Brooks-Woods took the helm of NABIP in September. She told InsuranceNewsNet her goal for the organization is to see it “go on the offense” regarding public policy issues that impact health insurance and the people who enroll consumers in coverage.

The coming year will be a busy one for public policy issues surrounding health care, Brooks-Woods predicted.

“I want us to be ahead of a rule, for example, and see that our relationships and our trust has been built to a point of being informed before we have to be on the battlefield,” she said.

Medicare rule to impact NABIP members

One public policy issue that will impact NABIP members in 2024 will be the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ rules concerning broker compensation and administrative fees in selling Medicare Advantage plans.

“I think we’ve done a good job positioning ourselves and helping to create clarity with regulators and legislators, helping them understand what the administrative fees are, what field marketing organizations actually do and how they operate,” Brooks-Woods said. “I think we’ve been lumped in with some unscrupulous third-party marketing organizations. In the last quarter of 2023 and going in to 2024, we are making sure that everyone is aware that we’re not them, and our members aren’t them, and that we don’t bad actors in the ecosystem either.”

Brooks-Woods said NABIP also wants to ensure “that Medicare beneficiaries have clarity, direction and trusted resources.”

“We want everyone to know that our brokers have FMOs to help them manage a lot of the regulations that have come down over the last few years, to help prevent increased premiums or impact to medical loss ratio,” she said.

Artificial intelligence is another topic that Brooks-Woods wants NABIP to address in 2024. She hired a digital transformation specialist who is helping the NABIP leadership team to understand “where artificial intelligence is going overall and then drilling that down to how that impacts us as an association, and then ultimately how does that influence how we prepare our membership to leverage AI as a tool.”

Leveraging AI better

In October, President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at advancing the responsible use of AI in health care. Brooks-Woods said she wants NABIP “to be in those rooms at the table, leading conversations around AI and providing insight to our members on how we leverage it to help us serve and understand our communities better.”

Next year marks the 50^th anniversary of the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Brooks-Woods said she believes ERISA must be modernized, and she wants NABIP to be at the forefront of any effort to do that.

“For example, pharmacy benefit managers and third-party administrators didn’t exist 50 years ago the way they do now,” she said.

“ERISA needs some modernization. We want it protected. We definitely don’t want a world where ERISA doesn’t exist. But we definitely want everyone to understand that coverage options and stakeholders have changed in 50 years.”

Brooks-Woods said she expects NABIP will be in discussions with the Department of Labor and CMS to address issues surrounding employers’ challenges with ERISA compliance.

Passage of Employer Reporting act cited

NABIP recently celebrated the House passage of the Employer Reporting Improvement Act, which contained administrative reforms that make it easier for businesses to comply with the Affordable Care Act. The bill moved to the Senate for its approval in November.

“This is something that NABIP has been advocating for the past 10 years, which is the requirement for employers to report information to the federal government in a way that is less burdensome than it has been in the past decade. We want to see it go over the finish line next year,” Brooks-Woods said.

Looking at Congress in 2024, Brooks-Woods said she predicts that legislation surrounding transparency in fees will gain traction.

The Lower Cost, More Transparency Act was passed by the House and awaits action in the Senate, where Brooks-Woods is optimistic the bill will pass.

This bill requires health care providers and insurers to disclose certain information about health care costs. It also establishes requirements for certain payment methodologies under Medicare and Medicaid and extends several public health programs.

NABIP will hold is 2024 Capitol Conference Feb. 25-28 in Washington. The featured speaker will be Chris Daney, who will discuss “AI Uprising: Seizing the Digital Rebirth of Health Care. Amy Walter, publisher and editor in chief of Cook Political Report, will be the keynote speaker.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.