Before the repairs, even when the site was “working”, it was recording only nine tenths of enrollments
Though the Obama administration must have sighed a bit of relief when the federal health insurance exchange website was repaired in time for the start of this month, it has now been revealed that the website had not been properly transmitting about 10 percent of all coverage applications.
A spokesperson for the government revealed that site users were let down more than previously believed.
At the end of November, the White House brought a massive emergency effort to a close after it had run for an intense five weeks, repairing the largest and most obvious of the health insurance exchange technical issues. However, the issues that were caused more deeply into the system before those repairs occurred have not decreased the extra work for insurers. Now they are required to verify all of the details that their new members have submitted, as one in ten had not been transmitted accurately before the repairs.
Unless that health insurance exchange data is corrected, it could potentially generate unwanted New Year surprises.
Unless all of the information from the online marketplaces is corrected, it could mean that when customer policies take effect on January 1, they will be based on the wrong information, they will involve the wrong coverage, or they will not be existent when they are supposed to be. This could meant that consumers will be paying more or less than they should for their coverage, based on the wrong information, or that they believe that they will be covered when they won’t have a plan at all.
According to spokesperson Julie Bataille from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “We believe nine of 10 transactions are being successfully transmitted.” Though it had previously been believed that most of the errors had been repaired for these transactions, no previous or current mistake rate had been identified before this announcement. She pointed out that the health insurance exchange error rate has dropped considerably since October 1 when there was an issue with up to one in four transactions.
