Manatt Health Managing Director Joel Ario is quoted in Modern Healthcare on CMS’s plans to distribute $20 million in grants to state-based marketplaces (SBMs), which will finance technology upgrades to improve performance and the consumer experience. The publication noted that SBMs can also put the funding toward consumer notifications and education, stakeholder training, state and federal reporting, a call center, staff training, or other program policies or procedures to implement federal requirements. “The new funding stream, roughly a million dollars per state, is very welcome money,” Ario said. “In a world in which technology is still changing at lightning speed, all exchanges can use more resources to continue to update their technologies.” He also noted that the funding will ideally improve the overall environment for marketplaces and encourage more states to establish their own marketplaces.