(a) General requirements. The Exchange must accept a QHP selection from an applicant who is determined eligible for enrollment in a QHP in accordance with subpart D, and must—

(1) Notify the issuer of the applicant's selected QHP; and

(2) Transmit information necessary to enable the QHP issuer to enroll the applicant.

(b) Timing of data exchange. The Exchange must:

(1) Send eligibility and enrollment information to QHP issuers and HHS promptly and without undue delay; and

(2) Establish a process by which a QHP issuer acknowledges the receipt of such information.

(3) Send updated eligibility and enrollment information to HHS promptly and without undue delay, in a manner and timeframe as specified by HHS.

(c) Records. The Exchange must maintain records of all enrollments in QHP issuers through the Exchange.

(d) Reconcile files. The Exchange must reconcile enrollment information with QHP issuers and HHS no less than on a monthly basis.

(e) Premium payment. Exchanges may, and the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and State-Based Exchanges on the Federal Platform will, require payment of a binder payment to effectuate an enrollment or to add coverage retroactively to an already effectuated enrollment. Exchanges may, and the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and State-Based Exchanges on the Federal Platform will, establish a standard policy for setting premium payment deadlines:

(1) In a Federally-facilitated Exchange or State-Based Exchange on the Federal Platform:

(i) For prospective coverage to be effectuated under regular coverage effective dates, as provided for in §155.410(f), the binder payment must consist of the first month's premium, and the deadline for making the binder payment must be no earlier than the coverage effective date, and no later than 30 calendar days from the coverage effective date.

(ii) For prospective coverage to be effectuated under special effective dates, as provided for in §155.420(b)(2) and (3), the binder payment must consist of the first month's premium, and the deadline for making the binder payment must be no earlier than the coverage effective date and no later than 30 calendar days from the date the issuer receives the enrollment transaction or the coverage effective date, whichever is later.

(iii) For coverage to be effectuated under retroactive effective dates, as provided for in §155.420(b)(2), including when retroactive effective dates are due to a delay until after special enrollment period verification, the binder payment must consist of the premium due for all months of retroactive coverage through the first prospective month of coverage, and the deadline for making the binder payment must be no earlier than 30 calendar days from the date the issuer receives the enrollment transaction. If only the premium for 1 month of coverage is paid, only prospective coverage should be effectuated, in accordance with §155.420(b)(3).

(2) Premium payment deadline extension. Exchanges may, and the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and State-Based Exchanges on the Federal Platform will, allow issuers experiencing billing or enrollment problems due to high volume or technical errors to implement a reasonable extension of the binder payment deadlines in paragraph (e)(1) of this section.

(f) Processing enrollment transactions. The Exchange may provide requirements to QHP issuers regarding the instructions for processing electronic enrollment-related transactions.

(g) Premium payment threshold. Exchanges may, and the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and State-Based Exchanges on the Federal Platform will, allow issuers to implement, a premium payment threshold policy under which issuers can consider enrollees to have paid all amounts due if the enrollees pay an amount sufficient to maintain a percentage of total premium paid out of the total premium owed equal to or greater than a level prescribed by the issuer, provided that the level is reasonable and that the level and the policy are applied in a uniform manner to all enrollees. If an applicant or enrollee satisfies the premium payment threshold policy, the issuer may:

(1) Effectuate an enrollment based on payment of the binder payment under paragraph (e) of this section.

(2) Avoid triggering a grace period for non-payment of premium, as described by §156.270(d) of this subchapter or a grace period governed by State rules.

(3) Avoid terminating the enrollment for non-payment of premium as, described by §§156.270(g) of this subchapter and 155.430(b)(2)(ii)(A) and (B).

(h) Requirements. A State Exchange may rely on HHS to carry out the requirements of this section and other requirements contained within this subpart through a Federal platform agreement.

[77 FR 18444, Mar. 27, 2012, as amended at 78 FR 42321, July 15, 2013; 79 FR 30348, May 27, 2014; 80 FR 10866, Feb. 27, 2015; 81 FR 12343, Mar. 8, 2016; 81 FR 94177, Dec. 22, 2016; 82 FR 18381, Apr. 18, 2017; 85 FR 29260, May 14, 2020]