Skip to content

Comment on Troubled Obamacare website wasn't tested until a week before launchparent

Comments

We're already hearing about backend nightmares. Can't find the Washington Post article where I first read it, but this UPI one citing them has the details I remember (http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/10/12/Obamacare-website-...):

"Several industry executives told The Washington Post the daily reports on new enrollments since the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act have often included duplicative information, such as people enrolling and canceling several times in a day."

And you left out e.g. connecting to Experian to get the consumer's credit score, which is part of plan pricing (a general trend with deductibles going up). That one, I've noticed, pretty much requires the registration ... but doesn't explain why the site forbids under penalty of perjury playing "what if" to determine how you might best arrange things for you and yours.

And referencing a Wall Street Journal article that's behind their paywall, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obamacare-woes-widen-as-ins... says:

"Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans."

On the other hand, if they get something, this tells us one simple method the insurance companies can generally use to resolve issues. Although it sounds like they'd best contact everyone who maybe signs up, and no doubt the system will be telling two or more companies that some customers have signed up....

A lot messier than CGI Federal's Medicare.gov's Part D prescription plan signup system, where in all fairness the info is binary (I've signed up with X plan) and both sides can depend on the site doing the right thing.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.