New final regulations on Exchange and Insurance Market Standards for 2015 and Beyond published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on May 16, 2014 confirm the end of the requirement to issue certificates of creditable coverage. Certificates of creditable coverage are no longer required after December 31, 2014.
This information does not come as a surprise, although it does come more than a year after the proposed regulations were issued in March of 2013.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) required certificates of creditable coverage to be issued to individuals switching from one health insurance plan to another to bypass pre-existing condition exclusions. After December 31, 2014, most health insurance plans will no longer contain pre-existing condition exclusions as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
Although the regulators recognize that certain individual policies may still contain pre-existing condition exclusions after December 31, 2014, the response to a public comment indicates that certificates of creditable coverage will no longer be relevant, even in this circumstance:
