Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; HHS Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2026; and Basic Health Program

This proposed rule includes payment parameters and provisions related to the HHS-operated risk adjustment and risk adjustment data validation (HHS-RADV) programs, as well as 2026 benefit year user fee rates for issuers that participate in the HHS-operated risk adjustment program and the 2026 benefit year user fee rates for issuers offering qualified health plans (QHPs) through Federally-facilitated Exchanges (FFEs) and State-based Exchanges on the Federal platform (SBE-FPs). This proposed rule also includes proposed requirements related to modifications to the calculation of the Basic Health Program (BHP) payment; and changes to the Initial Validation Audit (IVA) sampling approach and Second Validation Audit (SVA) pairwise means test for HHS- RADV. It also addresses HHS' authority to engage in compliance reviews of and take enforcement action against lead agents of insurance agencies for violations of HHS' Exchange standards and requirements; HHS' system suspension authority to address noncompliance by agents and brokers; an optional fixed-dollar premium payment threshold; proposed reconsideration standards for certification denials; proposed changes to the approach for conducting Essential Community Provider (ECP) certification reviews; a proposal to publicly share aggregated, summary-level Quality Improvement Strategy (QIS) information on an annual basis; and proposed revisions to the medical loss ratio (MLR) reporting and rebate requirements for qualifying issuers that meet certain standards.