@ezraklein: Big deal:backroom connection between insurance companies and Feds is a disaster

[dkf]

@ezraklein: Big deal: "the backroom connection between the insurance companies and the federal government is a disaster." http://t.co/p1Ub7gk96k

Ek's link:
How Many People Have Signed Up For Health Insurance on the Federal Health Insurance Exchanges?

Based upon my survey of a large number of health plans accounting for substantial market share in the 36 states the federal insurance exchange is operating in, not more than about 5,000 individuals and families signed-up for health insurance in the 36 states run by the Obama administration through Monday.

It is not uncommon for a major health insurer with a large market share to report less than 100 enrollments in the first week.

Reports today say the enrollments continue to trickle in at about the same rate.

Worse, the backroom connection between the insurance companies and the federal government is a disaster. Things are worse behind the curtain than in front of it.

Here is one example from a carrier--and I have received numerous reports from many other carriers with exactly the same problem. One carrier exec told me that yesterday they got 7 transactions for 1 person - 4 enrollments and 3 cancelations.

For some reason the system is enrolling, unenrolling, enrolling again, and so forth the same person. This has been going on for a few days for many of the enrollments being sent to the health plans. It has got on to the point that the health plans worry some of these very few enrollments really don't exist.

The reconciliation system, that reconciles enrollment between the feds and the health plans, is not working and hasn't even been tested yet.

[Mass]

1. Misleading - This is not from Ezra Klein, but from a RW. He completes it just by an other tweet.

Here is the following tweet

Ezra Klein ?@ezraklein 1h
The last time the government expanded health care, it was also kind of a disaster http://wapo.st/1cEcVjh

[dkf]

3. Ezra has linked to it via tweet.

[Mass]

4. And the next tweet explains that he disagrees, something you forget to say.

You realize that retweeting something does not mean you agree with it, of course.

[dkf]

26. He does not disagree. Medicare D was also a disaster to set up.

The thing is people were never required to get part D. It is optional.

Get real and acknowledge there are problems. Yes they can be fixed and hopefully it will be fixed. But stop living in lala land please.

[ProSense]

28. You know what you should do?

"Get real and acknowledge there are problems. Yes they can be fixed and hopefully it will be fixed. But stop living in lala land please. "

...stop insulting people and posting RW drivel. This system is experiencing problems typical of any massive rollout. In fact, it's working better than most.

How Does ACA’s First Week Compare to Medicare Part D’s?

Posted on October 6, 2013 by CHIR Faculty

By Jack Hoadley, Georgetown University Health Policy Institute

Since the official opening of health insurance marketplaces on October 1, there have been reports of broad interest and high traffic to marketplace websites, but also of various glitches and delays with those websites. Back in the fall of 2005, there was a similar launch for Medicare’s new Part D prescription drug benefit.

Does this excerpt from an article from the Washington Post of November 8, 2005, sound familiar?

The rollout of the new Medicare drug benefit has been anything but smooth. At a news briefing yesterday, Mark B. McClellan, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, provided a how-to demonstration of the much-awaited Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder, which he said would be available on www.medicare.gov by 3 p.m. It wasn’t. … Problem is, the Medicare folks have had some trouble getting the tool up and running. The original debut date was Oct. 13, but officials delayed it, citing the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. Next it was promised on Oct. 17, but that day, too, came and went without personalized plan comparisons being available. Late in the month, McClellan told reporters that the feature definitely would be ready before Nov. 15, the date when seniors can begin signing up for the drug benefit. Yesterday (November 8), McClellan announced that the time had come. … But the tool itself appeared to be in need of fixing yesterday. Visitors to the site could not access it for most of the first two hours. When it finally did come up around 5 p.m., it operated awfully slowly.

Even though there were problems this week, marketplace websites were at least up and running on the promised day, October 1. As reported by HHS officials, there were nearly 5 million visitors to healthcare.gov on the first day, far more than have ever visited Medicare.gov. During the 2005 signup period for Medicare Part D, the number of daily visitors to the online Plan Finder peaked at about 160,000 for a program that would enroll more people than are expected to enroll under the Affordable Care Act. By this standard, the level of interest in getting online information from the marketplaces is remarkable.

<...>

Glitches continued with the Part D website and call center throughout the open enrollment period. But the program added both phone lines and customer service representatives and implemented other upgrades over the weeks. The website – both its functionality and the accuracy of its information – was the source of ongoing frustration for its users, but it did get better over time.

By the end of open enrollment in May 2006, over 16 million successfully enrolled for drug benefits in Part D (not counting another 6 million automatically enrolled as a result of participation in both Medicare and Medicaid). Initial glitches did not deter their enrollment. And today, Part D enjoys widespread popularity.

http://chirblog.org/how-does-the-aca-first-week-compare-to-medicare-part-d/

People have until December 15 to sign up, and open enrollment is through March 31.

https://www.healthcare.gov/what-key-dates-do-i-need-to-know/#part=1

Why It Doesn't Matter If People Aren't Signing Up for Obamacare Yet

—By Stephanie Mencimer

Republicans have been insisting for a week now that Obamacare is a failure because immediately following its official debut on October 1, few people actually signed up for subsidized insurance plans through its new health exchanges. "Error message after error message. Failed security standards and 60 hours on website hold for just this one Kansan. It is clear, Obamacare is failing — an embarrassment, particularly for the former Kansas governor who is now in charge of Obamacare," Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) complained on the House floor last week.

<...>

What happened in Massachusetts is pretty much exactly what's happening right now with Obamacare. After the law went into effect in Massachusetts, state offices were totally overwhelmed by the number of people clamoring to sign up for insurance, or what the state's Medicaid director dubbed the "stress of success." Lost paperwork, computer glitches, confusion over who was eligible for what, and not enough staff to handle the workload meant that in those early days, consumers could wait several months after submitting an application to finally get coverage. So many people were trying to enroll in the expanded Medicaid program that the Medicaid agency ended up with a months-long backlog of applications. In the first two months, only 18,000 of more than 200,000 potentially eligible people had successfully signed up through the connector, according to Jonathan Gruber, an MIT professor who helped design the Massachusetts system and served on the Connector board. And all of that happened in a state with only 300,000 or so eligible applicants and without a well-funded opposition trying to derail the law at every turn.

But guess what? Eventually the kinks got worked out and people got covered. Enrollment opened in October 2006, and by the deadline for getting mandatory coverage, July 1, 2007, the Boston Globe reported, 20,000 more people had signed up for insurance on the exchange than the state had expected—12,000 of them in just the two weeks before the deadline. Total enrollment went from 18,000 in December 2006 to 158,000 a year later, says Gruber. Today, Massachusetts has the lowest rate of uninsured residents in the entire country—less than 4 percent—and polls show that people are generally happy with how everything worked out. The conservative Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has called the state's health care reform law “a well thought-out piece of legislation.”

The federal exchange is fielding vastly more work than the Massachusetts Health Connector, and if it's having trouble with the workload, that's largely thanks to Republican opponents. The drafters of the ACA never envisioned the federal government running health care marketplaces for most of the country. The ACA was specifically designed to respect the state's rights that Republicans claim to care so much about. It empowered states, which already regulate the sale of insurance, to run the exchanges. Healthcare.gov was supposed to be a backstop for states either too small to run their own or that dropped the ball on setting up their own exchanges. Instead, Republican governors across the country, and mostly in the South, abdicated the job completely. So instead of running a marketplace for a couple of states as planned, Healthcare.gov is having to do the work of 70 percent of them, including big states like Florida, Texas and Virginia (and also, ahem, Kansas). Of course the site was going to have some problems!

- more -

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/10/it-doesnt-matter-if-no-one-signs-obamacare-week

[ProSense]

5. The drivel in the OP should have been a clue

Based upon my survey of a large number of health plans accounting for substantial market share in the 36 states the federal insurance exchange is operating in, not more than about 5,000 individuals and families signed-up for health insurance in the 36 states run by the Obama administration through Monday.

It's Friday.

"One carrier exec told me that yesterday"

[BluegrassStateBlues]

7. LOL! 10,000 have already signed up in Kentucky alone...

About an average of 1K a day.

After 10 days of operation, Kentucky's online health insurance marketplace, kynect, is getting close to enrolling 10,000 enrolled in new health insurance plans. So far, 9,453 individuals are enrolled. Individuals who sign up for health insurance by Dec. 15 will start coverage on January 1, 2014.

More than 200,000 unique visitors have clicked on 4.1 million kynect web pages since the website launched on Oct. 1.

http://www.lex18.com/news/kynect-closes-in-on-10-000-enrollees-for-affordable-health-care

[dkf]

10. Is that a healthcare.gov site?

[BluegrassStateBlues]

11. They work in conjunction with one another.

Go through the same Experian check, etc.

[dkf]

20. Well the post speaks specifically of the 36 states that declined to create their own exchanges.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. hahaha. you've been pwnd. the Ezra Klein tweet links to an article giving historical perspective

using Medicare Part D passed under Bush. It was a program that should have been ENORMOUSLY popular among the people it was aimed at (elderly Medicare recipients) but it was wildly unpopular out of the gate with lots of glitches, slow enrollment, etc.

So............past is prologue. They got past it. It was a program that now no one would think of killing. And it is working other than the donut hole of coverage that was filled by Obamacare.

Nice try. not really.

[dkf]

13. Hello you are reading the wrong link.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

14. Even better. When I clicked on your actual link...BLOGSPOT?? give me a fucking break lady

this is not even remotely credible. You should apologize and put away the keyboard for the day. FAIL

[dkf]

17. Well if is good enough for Ezra it's good enough for me.

Maybe you should complain to him about being a right winger or whatever.

[bluestate10]

8. Completely dishonest. Ezra Klein had NOTHING to do with what you claim.

You posted information from a rightwing shill who was pushing his opinion and didn't present anything but innuendo.

[dkf]

15. I copied that tweet exactly as he posted.

Look it up yourself. Geez. Or do you not know how to get to twitter?

[Pretzel_Warrior]

16. you insinuated ezraklein posted this...not retweeted

so yeah. you fail.

[dkf]

18. The title is his tweet abbreviated.

His exact tweet is below. Then exactly what he linked to.

I added that below is the link. What else do you want?

Oh yeah you want me to proclaim that Ezra is obviously a right wing hack for linking to this post? Lol.

[PoliticAverse]

9. October should be beta testing month with real enrollments starting in November. n/t

[Pretzel_Warrior]

12. then call it that and just say anyone enrolled in October is bonus

[PoliticAverse]

19. I just hope there aren't any people that think they have health insurance but their applications

are now lost in glitchville.

[dkf]

21. It's obvious there will be some in that circumstance.

It's probably a good thing most haven't been able to sign up yet when it is glitchy.

[PoliticAverse]

22. I think it's too early to actually sign up both from a technical software perspective and because

most people who are buying insurance on the exchanges probably should be doing research over a few weeks
to learn everything they need to know (about provider networks, doctors accepting new patients, deductibles,
co-pays, out of pocket caps, etc.) before settling on an individual policy.

[dkf]

23. You hit it on the head.

I bet people are frustrated enough to just want to get it over with too.

We really needed a ton of transparency on plans prior to enrollment. People even need to be able to print out options so they can get advice.

I wonder how good these navigators are and if they got adequate training and have a background in the area.

[KoKo]

24. It's starting to seem that their Computer/Online Roll Out..done by Private Contractor

was not quite ready for Roll Out.

But, it seems they are trying to fix the glitches and some DU'ers are getting through.

Yet...there are still the glitches for folks who don't have hours and hours to spend online trying to get the Care.

They must have a "Paper Site" for those working full hours with families or other obligations where the process can be more simplified for those who don't want to deal with the "Online Sign Up" that seems to take so much time.

Anyone have LINKS to the site where you can just ask to have the PAPER WORK sent to your house with the list of Plans..(Gold, Silver, Bronze) and where you can see which one you qualify for according to your income and then apply?

Anyone have a link for this?

[dkf]

25. Anyone who thinks they got through needs to follow up prior to the deadline.

[KoKo]

27. Yes..that would be wise to do...but, is there a Paper Site...where one can apply?

for those who are still on Dial Up or don't have Cell Minutes they can afford to waste?

That's what I asked. Anyone know if you can call a number and ask for the plan choices to be sent according to your State?

[PoliticAverse]

29. Washington Post: Federal health exchange sending confusing enrollment information to insurers

The federal health-care exchange that opened a dozen days ago is marred by snags beyond the widely publicized computer gridlock that has thwarted Americans trying to buy a health plan. Even when consumers have been able to sign up, insurers sometimes can’t tell who their new customers are because of a separate set of computer defects.

The problems stem from a feature of the online marketplace’s computer system that is designed to send each insurer a daily report listing people who have just enrolled. According to several insurance industry officials, the reports are sometimes confusing and duplicative. In some cases, they show — correctly or not — that the same person enrolled and canceled several times on a single day.

The ability of consumers to sign up for a health plan, and the ability of the insurers to know who they are covering, is key to the success of the federal law that will for the first time require most Americans to have health insurance starting Jan. 1. The Web site www.healthcare.gov is the main path for millions of Americans in 36 states to purchase new coverage.

The flawed enrollment reports illustrate that the site is bedeviled by problems that go beyond what the Obama administration has acknowledged in explaining the creaky performance of the exchange so far.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/federal-health-exchange-sending-confusing-enrollment-information-to-insurers/2013/10/11/a2f3ce2e-31ec-11e3-9c68-1cf643210300_print.html

[dkf]

30. Who is going to fix that? Who is responsible even?

Do the insurance companies now have to follow up? Sounds expensive and time consuming.

[Kingofalldems]

31. Somebody call the republicans---they'll tell us what to do.

[dkf]

32. Mitt Romney. Ugh.