All posts by Margot Thistle

Margot Thistle, Esq. is a managing editor of Health Policy News who has spent much of her career working directly on Affordable Care Act policy and implementation, including having lead plan management operational and policy planning for Vermont Health Connect, a state-based exchange. During her time at PCG, Ms. Thistle has worked extensively with state insurance departments and state agencies on health policy, market stabilization, and regulatory compliance matters. Ms. Thistle provides broad policy and regulatory support to PCG’s other health care clients across the country, analyzing policy and regulatory developments, providing strategic advice relative to regulatory questions, and drafting policy briefs and position papers. Ms. Thistle still has her admission ticket to the signing of Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006, the historical Massachusetts health reform bill that preceded the ACA.

2024 Final Marketplace Rules & Guidance for Health Issuers

Changed the subject line & addedd that spacingOn April 17,2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the final Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2024 (NBPP), ...

Drug Affordability and Accessibility Report Released by CMS Innovation Center in response to Executive Order 14807- Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Americans

Drug Affordability and Accessibility Report Released by CMS Innovation Center in response to Executive Order 14807- Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Americans In October of 2022, the Biden Administration released ...

Unwinding the Continuous Enrollment Requirement

Unwinding the Continuous Enrollment Requirement   Although the Public Health Emergency (PHE) end has not been formally announced, the administration has taken steps to start the process of unwinding the ...

2024 Draft Marketplace Rules

Draft Marketplace Rules & Guidance for Health Issuers On December 12, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the Proposed Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2024 ...

Health Policy News Predictions for 2023

Predictions for 2023 As is customary for Health Policy News, as the year comes to an end, we are spending time thinking forward about topics and developments the Health Policy ...

Health Policy News Teams Host Webinar on the End of the Public Health Emergency

On November 17th, the HPN team hosted a webinar as a companion piece to an October 2022 white paper – The End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency & the ...

Health Policy News Conference Roundup  

Highlights from the 2022 National Association of Medicaid Program Integrity Conference; Advancing Medicaid Program Integrity – Chris Richter Several members of Public Consulting Group’s (PCGs) Health Payer Services team recently ...

American Rescue Plan Act Funding Progress Updates

Last summer, Health Policy News provided coverage of early planning at the state level to implement Section 9817 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) related to Home ...

The Department of Health and Human Services Releases 2023 Final Exchange Rules & Guidance for Health Issuers

As the deadline for submission of Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) approaches, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the final 2023 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP) ...

COVID-19 Lessons Learned Inform Retrospectives of State Responses and Pandemic Preparedness

By Rawson Pino and Margot Thistle As COVID-19 became a national pandemic in the United States in early 2020, states across the country scrambled to respond with public health strategies ...