Early Implementor States Running Behind

The Early Innovator grants, awarded in February, total $241 million, and are meant to support states for the next two years as they develop "exchange IT models that can be adopted and tailored by other states." Many of the seven states awarded Early Innovator grants, while still meeting HHS benchmarks, are struggling to move forward on other key aspects of implementation, especially passing legislation to set up the new online marketplaces for insurance .