15K Health Site Users' Data Didn't Reach Insurers

Plus: Thousands hit with wrong enrollments, denials
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 14, 2013 3:15 PM CST
15K Health Site Users' Data Didn't Reach Insurers
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington in this Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013 file photo.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The White House is releasing new data on the effectiveness of HealthCare.gov, and many of the figures aren't pretty. The Washington Post reports that the registrations of nearly 15,000 people who signed up for plans failed to arrive in insurers' inboxes, at least at first. Things have gotten better, however, since the start of this month, the administration says: Now, less than 1% of the registrations aren't getting to the firms. Still, officials don't actually have a list of names of those who suffered the problem.

The so-called "orphan files" are just one of several issues highlighted in the Post and Wall Street Journal. In some cases, insurers got inaccurate data from the exchanges. Meanwhile, thousands of users were incorrectly assigned either to Medicaid or to private insurers, or their eligibility was wrongly denied; at their worst, these problems may affected up to a fifth of applicants, per an estimate cited by the Journal. Some legal immigrants in Illinois, for instance, were informed they'd get Medicaid coverage despite not having lived in the state long enough to qualify. An administration rep emphasizes that "the vast majority of the (newly-released data) is retroactive." (More health insurance stories.)

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