Summary of Public Comments

Responses to Comments Received
Proposed Rule CMS-2334-F2
CMS received no comments regarding the information collection requirements proposed in the Certified
Application Counselor PRA package which was published in connection with proposed 45 CFR §155.225,
published on January 22, 2013 (78 FR 4594, 4661) in the Federal Register notice of proposed rulemaking,
“Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Programs, and Exchanges: Essential Health Benefits in
Alternative Benefit Plans, Eligibility Notices, Fair Hearing and Appeal Processes for Medicaid and
Exchange Eligibility Appeals and Other Provisions Related to Eligibility and Enrollment for Exchanges,
Medicaid and CHIP, and Medicaid Premiums and Cost Sharing.”1
We note that CMS solicited comments in a separate notice of proposed rulemaking that was published
on April 5, 2013, in connection with the Navigator/non-Navigator proposed rule. Specifically, CMS
solicited comments on the extent the requirements for Navigators and/or non-Navigator Assistance
personnel should extend to certified application counselors. CMS received a number of comments to the
substantive regulatory requirements for certified application counselors, some of which were relevant
to the information collection requirements for certified application counselors that we are finalizing in
the Final Rule, “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Exchange Functions: Standards for
Navigators and Non-Navigator Assistance Personnel; Consumer Assistance Tools and Programs of an
Exchange and Certified Application Counselors”, which we are publishing simultaneously with this
information collection. Please refer to the final rule for a full discussion of the substantive comments
received through notice in the Federal Register that we considered as we finalized §155.225 and
associated information collections.

1

The PRA package estimated the burden associated with these provisions as the time and effort necessary for the
Exchange to develop and execute agreements with applicable application counselors. For each provision we
estimate that it will take 105 hours per Exchange to meet these reporting requirements. This includes a mid-level
health policy analyst drafting the agreement with managerial oversight and comprehensive review of the
agreement. The estimated cost for each Exchange is $6,733 and a total cost of $343,383 for 51 Exchanges.