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Benefits Selling Magazine: HealthCare.gov Unplugged

December 13 2013:

Amber May quotes Tatiana Melnik in her Cover Story story for the December 2013 issue of Benefits Selling Magazine, which details the problems encountered with the federal exchange website and the next steps to be taken to resolve the technical issues.

The Federal Government has run into a bumpy road implementing the technical infrastructure for the insurance exchanges. While the website itself was pleasant to look at, a number of behind the scenes elements were not working as expected.

"Health care information technology attorney Tatiana Melnik says corrupt data is another issue that�s been reported already � and likely to get worse."

�The insurance carriers are receiving bad data,� she says. �There isn�t any specific information about how many applications have gone through to insurance providers, but from the reports I�ve seen, the ones that have gone through have had some problems in the classification of dependents and things of that nature. This is a real costly issue � and this is why the IT issues are so problematic, because many companies are relying on the data being correct.� . . .

�The escalating costs aren�t just for project-specific costs, they�re all down the line,� Melnik says. �The insurance company has to undertake additional steps checking and correcting data; and the consumer may need to go back and fill out the application again; and everyone is spending all this time doing duplicate work.�

Benefits Selling Magazine, published online at https://www.benefitspro.com - Read the full article here: HealthCare.gov unplugged: What went wrong with the federal exchange website and why? But maybe more importantly, what now?