Monday, December 16, 2013

OBAMACARE Site Errors Continue: Missing Customers and Inaccurate Eligibility Determinations

Insurers and federal officials sifting through insurance applications under the health-care law have identified a raft of errors, including missing customers and inaccurate eligibility determinations that mean people may be enrolled in the wrong coverage. 
Thousands of insurance applicants from HealthCare.gov—at least one in five at the height of the problems by one estimate—have received inaccurate assignments to Medicaid or to the marketplace for private plans, or have received incorrect denials, people familiar with the matter said. Eligibility determinations are an early step in the application process, before consumers choose plans. 
In some cases described by a state official with knowledge of the matter, legal immigrants who aren't yet eligible for Medicaid in Illinois—it takes five years of residence to join the state-run programs for low-income people—were nevertheless told they would be enrolled. 
The risk that consumers could remain in limbo as the health law's coverage expansion begins in January has been a continual political threat to the Obama administration, which has addressed flaws—ranging from a malfunctioning website to the cancellation of health policies that don't meet the law's requirements—with a patchwork of last-minute fixes. 
The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday urged insurers to help avoid Jan. 1 mix-ups by loosening coverage rules. Officials asked companies to cover people retroactively who miss the Jan. 1 deadline to pay premiums and pay for drugs next month, even for customers who haven't yet fully enrolled. 
But insurance-industry executives warn that some of these data problems will only emerge once customers begin seeking care in January at physicians' offices, pharmacies and hospitals. The result could be bureaucratic chaos as doctors and patients storm insurers' phone banks and federal officials work to clean up the inaccuracies.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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1 comment:

BOSMAN said...

If you're one of the UNLUCKY ONES who have actually applied for ObamaMESS, you really have to be your own advocate...NO ONE ELSE WILL.

Make sure you get a confirmation (IN WRITING from Insurance Co.) that your'e actually ENROLLED IN A PLAN and it's THE CORRECT ONE. If you get a subsidy...MAKE SURE IT'S THERE and CORRECT. Make sure you've MADE A PAYMENT on the plan or all these potential errors can come back and bite you where it will hurt.