Greater Choice of Doctors May be Coming to an Exchange Near You

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Connecticut is among a number of states where health insurers are adding to the choice of doctors people will be able to access through the insurance plans sold on the new health insurance exchanges. According to the article, states including California, Connecticut, New York, and Ohio are expanding provider networks to meet the needs of plan enrollees. The expansion follows concerns that too many insurers offer limited networks or plans that offer tiered networks, where higher copays are charged to use certain hospitals or doctors. In Connecticut, the article reports that Access Health CT, the state’s exchange, “had relatively stringent requirements to ensure plans offered a broad array of providers.” Despite these requirements, Access Health CT received complaints about certain providers not being included in the networks.