LifeHealth Pro quoted Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health, for an article on the Health Care Reform Regulatory Alternatives Working Group, a panel at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for states that are not of fond of the Affordable Care Act. Ario was one of the speakers that was brought in to give the working group members a general update on the King vs. Burwell case and possible repercussions.
LifeHealth Pro reports that court watchers have been trying to figure out what exactly states that have avoided running ACA exchanges themselves might have to do to have an exchange that is "state-established" enough to keep the tax credit program going, at least on a limited, emergency basis, if the Supreme Court rules against HHS.
Ario said states could probably still set up their own state-based exchanges for 2016, as long as they and HHS act quickly.
Under the current HHS rules, blueprints for 2016 state-based exchanges are due June 15, 2015, but "most requirements are operationally based and not rooted in statutory requirements," Ario said in a slidedeck. "HHS could make wholesale changes in this process."