Healthcare.gov still isn't finished

The website remains unfinished. Politico reported last week that the back end of Healthcare.gov “still isn’t properly wired to the health insurance companies.” Problems persist with subsidy payments, and information verification, resulting in roughly 800,000 enrollees receiving inaccurate subsidy information.

“Even though consumers had a largely smooth enrollment experience this year, the fact that these gaps persist behind the scenes 18 months after HealthCare.gov launched shows that the system is still not working as intended,” Politico said. “Instead of a swift process, health plans use clunky workarounds and manual spreadsheets. It takes time and it costs money.”

Kevin Counihan, the chief executive officer of Healthcare.gov who previously ran the Connecticut health insurance marketplace, recently told insurance brokers that “CMS is spending a lot of time focusing on how to improve the federal exchange’s back-end functions and that the agency meets at least weekly with a group of insurance officials from large companies to discuss its two-year development plan,” Politco Pro reported.