government accountability office Archives

California Wildfire insurance expansion act passes House

August 4, 2022August 3, 2022 Nordstrom

HR 8483 has now passed the House and will require studies by FEMA and the GAO. House Committee on Financial Services Chair Rep Maxine Waters (D) has announced that “The Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act” has passed the House, including her bill HR 8483, “The Wildfire Insurance Coverage Study Act of 2022”. The next step will involve studies to provide assessments regarding the rising danger of the blazes. HR 8483 will require that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct assessment studies to…

US health insurance exchanges are exposed to fraud

October 27, 2015October 25, 2015 Logan B.

hacked phone federal health insurance exchange

GAO report highlights the fraud problems that many exchanges have to deal with A new report from the Government Accountability Office has found that health insurance exchanges set up through the Affordable Care Act are still exposed to fraud. Exchanges have long had a problem with fraudulent applications, with fake Social Security Numbers and falsified immigration details being applied to these applications in order for people to acquire insurance coverage. These issues were first discovered more than a year ago, but efforts to curb fraud have had limited impact. Many…

Arizona health insurance co-op is finally finding some traction

August 7, 2015August 5, 2015 S.Vagus

Insurance co-op reports skyrocketing enrollment numbers this year Arizona’s non-profit health insurance co-op has seen a major increase in enrollment following poor enrollment predictions in 2014. Last year, the co-op was audited by the Department of Health and Human Services, which found that enrollment numbers were abysmal, with the co-op only providing coverage for some 869 people. This is only 4% of the co-op’s enrollment target of 24,000, making it one of the worst performing health insurance co-ops in the country. Meritus is finding traction among consumers in Arizona Despite…

Report highlights the problems of the small business health insurance exchange network

November 19, 2014November 17, 2014 Marc

Health insurance for small business health care costs

GAO report shows that enrollment in SHOP is not meeting expectations The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a new report concerning enrollment in the federal Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP). The program is meant to serve as a health insurance exchange catering specifically to small businesses. In most cases, these businesses are required to offer their employees insurance coverage due to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, but these companies cannot find coverage through conventional insurance exchanges. SHOP was designed to address this issue. Only 12,000 health…

Federal health insurance exchanges may fall short

September 25, 2014September 22, 2014 S.Vagus

HealthCare.gov has come under scrutiny as a new open enrollment period approaches The federal HealthCare.gov website may not live up to expectations by the time open enrollment for U.S. health insurance exchanges begins again this year. The website is set to begin testing with insurance companies on October 7, but it has been crippled by severe glitches and other issues that could prevent it from working efficiently. If the site’s problems are not resolved, it may not be able to serve as an adequate way for people to enroll for…

Legal battle erupts over broken health insurance exchange

August 28, 2014August 26, 2014 S.Vagus

Oregon has filed a fraud and breach-of-contract lawsuit against Oracle Late last week, Oregon filed a lawsuit against software company Oracle and several of its top executives. The state is accusing the company of fraud and breach-of-contract that may have cost Oregon a veritable fortune while leaving many of the state’s residence without access to a working health insurance exchange. Oracle was contracted by the state to develop the software that would manage the exchange, but internal problems have left the exchange inoperable and it has yet to see an…

Disability insurance payments paid by SSA to ineligible recipients

September 20, 2013September 17, 2013 G. Turner

These individuals have received $1.3 billion which they were not entitled to obtain and the SSA hopes to recoup some. Estimates released from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has shown that the Social Security Administration (SSA) has issued approximately $1.3 billion in disability insurance payments to individuals who were not eligible to receive them. This figure was calculated based on an analysis of SSA data for beneficiaries from December 2010 to January 2013. The analysis was conducted on the SSA data regarding the individuals who were recipients of disability insurance…