WASHINGTON — Moving to implement a much-anticipated consumer protection in the new health care law, the Obama administration issued regulations Thursday requiring health plans to describe what they cover in clear, standardized language that is understandable to consumers.
Starting this fall, insurers and employers that offer health coverage will have to provide a six-page form that summarizes basic plan information, such as deductibles and co-pays, as well as costs for using in-network and out-of-network medical services.
The forms also will include estimated out-of-pocket costs for two basic examples of care — delivering a baby and managing Type 2 diabetes.
The changes are designed to let consumers assess how much their care would cost under different insurance policies, and to simplify the process of evaluating health plans, a task that now can involve reviewing hundreds of pages published by insurers.
“One of the primary purposes of this is to ensure this apple-to-apples comparison across plans,” said Steve Larsen, the senior Department of Health and Human Services official overseeing insurance regulation.
The simplified forms — known as the Summary of Benefits and Coverage — were mandated by the law signed by President Barack Obama in March 2010.
