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MEWA Database: Offers Detailed State Information
One major way employers and self-employed individuals access health insurance coverage is through group purchasing arrangements, including association health plans (AHPs), multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs), and health insurance purchasing coalitions (HIPCs). Millions of Americans rely on such arrangements to finance health care benefits, but little is known or understood about such arrangements and their regulation.
In a HCFO-funded study, Mila Kofman, J.D., and colleagues at Georgetown University have been examining the dynamics of pooled purchasing arrangements. Data from this study are accessible through a new database which contains information on M-1 Forms filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) in 2003. The purpose of the database is to help state regulators and investigators to identify MEWAs operating in their states. It allows for searches and provides information not available on the federal government's Web page, such as estimates of the number of people covered by each MEWA, estimates of the number of fully insured and self-insured MEWAs in each state, and names of MEWAs fully and/or self-insured operating in each state.
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