WASHINGTON, D.C.—The United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last week announced that three more states’ health insurance exchanges have been conditionally approved. HHS issued the first conditional approval of a federal/state partnership exchange in Delaware, and Minnesota and Rhode Island were conditionally approved to operate a state-based exchange. They join conditional approvals already issued the week prior for Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Oregon and Washington to operate state-based exchanges.

The conditional approval for Delaware’s exchange is the first of its kind to operate a federal/state partnership exchange. According to a statement from HHS, this “shows the vast progress Delaware has made ahead of the Feb. 15, 2013, deadline to apply to operate a state partnership exchange.” The deadline for states to apply to operate a state-based exchange was Dec. 14, 2012, as reported by VMail. Others states that have expressed early interest in establishing a federal/state partnership exchange are Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa and North Carolina.