Having a baby in the new year? Good luck trying to enter that into HealthCare.gov.
In the latest glitch to emerge regarding the Affordable Care Act system, health officials are telling new enrollees that the federal insurance marketplace will not be able to update their coverage online to reflect the birth of a baby and other life changes.
Instead, parents are being told to contact insurers directly, and then contact the government later on -- when the system is ready to handle it.
Parents will still be able to get new babies covered, but the missing feature on the website represents another step, and just one of several glitches that continue to surface. In certain states, problems have also prevented thousands of would-be Medicaid enrollees from getting coverage.
The function that prevents people from entering in a newborn pertains to the computerized "change in circumstance" feature. It was supposed to have been part of the federal system from the start.
But that feature got postponed as the government scrambled to fix technical problems that overwhelmed the health care website during its first couple of months.
"It's just another example of `We'll fix that later,"' said Bob Laszewski, an industry consultant who said he's gotten complaints from several insurer clients. "This needed to be done well before January. It's sort of a fly-by-night approach."Read the rest of the story HERE.
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2 comments:
"In the latest glitch to emerge regarding the Affordable Care Act system, health officials are telling new enrollees that the federal insurance marketplace will not be able to update their coverage online to reflect the birth of a baby and other life changes.
Instead, parents are being told to contact insurers directly, and then contact the government later on -- when the system is ready to handle it."
Yeah...Now you remember to do all that while working and taking care of a newborn...ADD IT to your list of things to do..when you have HOURS to spare waiting to update your health insurance on-line.
Perhaps if you know a hacker...they could help you add in the information quicker..
Bosman, do you know if there is a way to have a post automatically bumped to the top when a new comment is posted? I think RightOSphere worked that way, if I'm not mistaken. I'm guessing not, but it would be a good feature, IMO.
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