NEWS & VIEWS

September 24, 2026

Registration Is Open!

Affordable health coverage is a challenge facing Hoosiers. Families are working to manage rising costs; employers are searching for sustainable benefit options, and policymakers are evaluating approaches to expand access while controlling expenses.

Join CKF-IN to explore proposals to address these growing concerns. Experts will discuss current policy recommendations, innovative coverage models, and practical strategies that could help make health coverage more affordable for Indiana residents and employers alike. This panel will provide valuable information, fresh perspectives, and actionable ideas for moving forward.

Mental Health Parity

The Trump administration is wading into the difficult issue of mental health parity, laying out requirements aimed at making health plans cover behavioral health at the same level as physical health.

The Department of Labor issued guidance this month describing how it plans to enforce mental health parity requirements with proposed regulation expected by the end of the year. The guidance emphasizes a goal of “fair and even-handed” enforcement, according to an Assistant Secretary directive. It highlights scrutiny of care-management tools such as pre-treatment claims reviews and also examines whether insurer networks are adequate. 

Advocacy groups and experts cited in the article describe persistent disparities in access to behavioral health services relative to medical and surgical care, including longer waits and greater out-of-network use that can increase patient costs.

Medical Debt Impacts 1 in 3 Insured Adults

A new survey from the Commonwealth Fund found that a third of adults with private insurance are managing medical debt. This underscores the impact rising healthcare costs are having on all patients. The survey of 6,535 privately insured adults under age 65 showed that having health insurance coverage is not enough to insulate people from high healthcare costs anymore.



"Medical debt is often viewed as a problem limited to people who are uninsured or who face a major medical emergency," Sara R. Collins, a study coauthor and Commonwealth Fund senior scholar for Expanding Coverage and Access and Tracking Health System Performance, said in a press release. "But this survey shows that it is also widespread among Americans with private insurance."

Special Education Resources for the New School Year 

The Arc@School’s Free IEP Student Profile

Students can take a more active role in their education with this this fillable IEP student profile. Use the template to capture a student’s goals, hopes, strengths, and support needs in one clear document, and share it with their education team.

The Arc@School AI Advisor

Have questions about IEPs, Section 504, early intervention, disability rights, or another aspect of special education? This AI advisor provides expert-vetted answers to help you find the information you need.

Family Guide to Special Education in the U.S.

For a broader look at the special education system, this comprehensive guide from Save the Children walks families through their rights in the education system, steps to getting special education services, meeting tips, and more.

Understanding Neurodivergent Students, From Their View

Through My Eyes is an interactive experience that can help you better understand how to support neurodivergent students. It provides a firsthand look at the challenges students with ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia face every day. Additionally, Understood.org provides tips on how to create a more inclusive classroom that fosters “norms vs. rules” and much more!

The Ultimate Back-to-School Guide for Families of Children With Disabilities

This guide, updated for the 2026-2027 school year, covers everything from preparing your child for a new school year and connecting with their education team to understanding their rights and building self-advocacy skills.

New GAO Report Shows Progress on Inclusion for Students With Disabilities

More students with disabilities are learning in general education classrooms, but progress remains uneven across states and disability categories. This breaks down what the latest findings mean for inclusion and why strong federal oversight still matters.

Why Your Student With a Disability Is Being Bullied (And What You're Missing)

The Arc CEO, Katy Neas, joined the Leading Equity podcast to discuss the tools and resources necessary to ensure equity and safety for every learner.

Medical Frailty and Community Engagement

On September 8th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released, Implementing Medical Frailty Under Community Engagement (Section 71119 of WFTC Legislation) Slide Deck. The slides cover provisions of the Interim Final Rule with Comment Period including how CMS is defining medically frail. 



• Individuals who are blind or disabled; have a substance use disorder; have a disabling mental disorder; have a serious or complex medical condition; or have a physical, intellectual or developmental disability that significantly impairs their ability to perform one or more activities of daily living (ADL) are considered medically frail only if the individual’s condition significantly impairs the person’s ability to comply with the community engagement requirement.
• Individuals with substance use disorder who are in stable recovery for 5 or more years are not excluded from the community engagement requirement.
• A serious or complex medical condition is defined as a medical condition that is life threatening, seriously disabling without necessarily being life threatening, causing significant pain or discomfort that can cause serious interruptions to life activities, requiring a major time or effort commitment from caregivers for a substantial period of time, requiring frequent monitoring, associated with severe consequences or negative consequences for someone else, affecting multiple organ systems, requiring management to tight physiological parameters, requiring coordination of multiple specialties, requiring treatment that carries a risk of serious complications, or requiring adjustment in non-medical environments.
• CMS did not further define the following medically frail categories: (A) An individual who is blind or disabled, (B) An individual with a disabling mental disorder, and (C) An individual with a physical, intellectual, or developmental disability that significantly impairs their ability to perform one or more ADL.
• CMS requires that states must develop a list of diseases, diagnoses, disorders, or other health conditions to identify individuals who are medically frail. If an individual does not have a condition on this list, states must have reasonable processes and criteria in place for individuals to request consideration for the medically frail exclusion.
• After verifying medical frailty using reliable information or documentation, states must reverify an individual’s medical frailty status at least every 12 months

Town Halls on HIP Work Requirements

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) in partnership with Covering Kids & Families of Indiana is hosting a series of public town hall meetings for Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) members, providers, and community partners. These sessions are being held in counties across the state with rules and processes related to implementation of upcoming HIP work requirements.

Current town halls are listed below, and additional ones will be announced throughout the year.

October 1 - Ivy Tech Sellersburg

• Address: 8204 Highway 311 - Sellersburg, IN 47172
• Building: Ogle – Door 8 - Community Room 179
• Time: 6 to 7:30 p.m. ET

NEW DATE - Oct. 6: Ivy Tech Valparaiso

• Address: 3100 Ivy Tech Drive Valparaiso, IN 46383
• Building: Community Center - Room D125
• Time: 6 to 7:30 p.m. CT

NEW - October 12 - Ivy Tech Bloomington

• Address: 200 Daniels Way, Bloomington, IN 47404
• Room: Shreve Hall
• Time: 6 to 7:30 p.m. ET

NEW - October 14 - Ivy Tech Logansport

• Address: 1 Ivy Tech Drive Logansport, IN 46947
• Room: Community Center
• Time: 6-7:30 p.m. ET

Diabetes and Marketplace Coverage

Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms released a series of resources with concrete tips and considerations for providers and assisters to support people living with diabetes to navigate affordability challenges and potential gaps in coverage.

• Preparing for Marketplace Open Enrollment for People with Diabetes: What to Expect: Provides tips on how to approach the upcoming Marketplace open enrollment period, including what is new for 2027 coverage and considerations for people with diabetes as they compare coverage options.
• Filling in Gaps and Avoiding Insufficient Coverage Options for People with Diabetes: Provides tips on how to identify non-ACA regulated coverage and why these products may not work for people with diabetes and identifies resources to ensure people with diabetes can access care and treatment even during a gap in coverage.
• Resources for People with Insulin-Requiring Diabetes Navigating Marketplace Open Enrollment: Provides links and descriptions for resources to help people with diabetes navigate coverage choices.
• Recorded webinar on Preparing for Marketplace Open Enrollment: What Diabetes Providers and Assisters Need to Know and Slides

ACA Plans Canceled by CMS

CMS canceled roughly 315,000 ACA Marketplace policies covering 760,000 people. Some reasons for the action given by officials were: 

• Widespread fraud by third party brokers
• Nonexistent "phantom" enrollees
• Accounts with no medical or pharmaceutical claims
• Members had income above the program limits or active employer-based coverage

Policy issuers could not identify claims or contact these consumers.

CMS said it is anticipating a return of about $2.2 billion in advance payments of the premium tax credit. The removals were spearheaded by the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. 

CMS is also temporarily freezing new agent and broker registrations with federally facilitated exchanges for plan year 2027. This pause will be in effect until Feb. 1. The rulemaking documents said that based on two methodologies, agent and broker noncompliance leading to unauthorized enrollment could amount to roughly $1.5 billion or $6.6 billion in annual improper federal spending.

Resources for the Midterms

Midterm elections are right around the corner. Here are some resources to assist Hoosiers.

The Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute asked 3,000 Hoosiers about their top needs and then asked candidates running for Congress or the Indiana General Assembly to respond to questions about how they would address each need. Their responses can be found here.

Need to register to vote? TurboVote can help voters register, see what’s on their ballot, and learn about important deadlines.

Indiana voter information is available at Indiana Voters.

The Beyond the Basics annual webinar series takes place ahead of open enrollment each fall. The webinars are presented by policy experts who provide in-depth training on a wide range of eligibility and enrollment topics to help prepare assisters for open enrollment. Register for one or all here.

October 6 at 2 pm – Premium Tax Credits

Experts from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will review premium tax credit eligibility rules and how premium tax credits are calculated.  

October 15 at 2 pm – Verifying Eligibility

Experts from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will explain the marketplace eligibility verification process, how to prevent data matching issues from occurring, and how to resolve them when they do.  

October 20 at 2 pm – Health Coverage Eligibility Based on Immigration Status

Immigration policy experts from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will explain immigration-related eligibility requirements for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

Completed webinars are available on demand here, including the Medicaid Work Requirement training from earlier in September.

Oral Nicotine Pouches and Young People

The Truth Initiative examined the growing role of oral nicotine pouches, such as ZYN, On! and Velo, in introducing young people to nicotine. The article reports that nearly two-thirds of young people who began using nicotine pouches used another nicotine product as well. This finding raises concerns about dual or poly-product use and greater nicotine dependence. Common reasons for using pouches included seeking a nicotine “buzz,” believing they were less harmful than cigarettes or e-cigarettes.

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