The Department of Health and Human Services issued an interim final rule imposing a temporary moratorium on the registration of new agents and brokers for Federally-facilitated Exchanges. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services stated that the measure aims to prevent unauthorized enrollments, misuse of consumer personally identifiable information, and other non-compliant conduct while it implements enhanced program-integrity safeguards.

The moratorium pauses registration for agents and brokers who do not have a current Plan Year 2026 registration with the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and are seeking to enter into Exchange agreements for Plan Year 2027. This restriction is effective from September 22, 2026, until February 1, 2027, unless modified by subsequent notice in the Federal Register. The rule became effective immediately upon publication on September 22, 2026.

The regulatory action applies specifically to the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and State-based Exchanges that use the Federal platform. It does not affect registrations on State-based Exchanges that do not use the Federal platform. The Department of Health and Human Services waived prior notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act, citing that advance notice would be contrary to the public interest and impracticable.

The agency cited over 624,000 consumer complaints of unauthorized enrollments from 2023 through 2025 as the basis for the moratorium. Approximately 300,000 of those complaints regarding unauthorized enrollments were received in 2025 alone. In Plan Year 2026, there were 84,012 total registered agents and brokers with active enrollments. New agents represented approximately 11 percent of this group.

Enforcement actions preceded the broader pause. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued final terminations to 160 agents and brokers for non-compliant behavior in Plan Year 2026. Additionally, newly registered agents accounted for approximately 30 percent of the 569 agents receiving Notices of Intent to Terminate in July and August 2026.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will consider public comments received by November 21, 2026, to determine whether to retain, modify, or rescind the codified authority. This rule follows other recent departmental publications, including a rule on hospital payment systems published on August 4, 2026, and a notice on the Privacy Act of 1974 published on August 5, 2026.