More Reports of Insurers Receiving Flawed HIX Data

More reports of faulty data from the federal health care exchange have surfaced, further indicating technological problems that go beyond website traffic and software issues. And, health insurers are left dealing with the problems.

Since open enrollment began, experts have said insurers are receiving electronic files that can’t open or have so much missing information on new enrollees they’re unusable. And, today, according to the Wall Street Journal, 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, and Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans, WSJ reports.

Earlier this week America's Health Insurance Plans' President and CEO Karen Ignagni and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association's President and CEO Scott Serota released the following statement:

"In the first two weeks of the six-month open enrollment process, we have seen a very high level of interest from consumers across the country wanting to sign up for health care coverage.  Health plans are engaged in a variety of activities to help individuals and families understand their options and enroll in a plan that is right for them.

"Experienced systems experts from across the industry are working closely with federal and state exchange officials to help address operational issues as they arise, similar to what was done during the introduction of the Medicare prescription drug program.  As the new marketplaces move forward, we are confident consumers will be able to get the coverage they need."

Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Mark Bertolini told WSJ that while he believes the exchanges are "here to stay," they’re not starting out great. "The longer this takes to resolve…the harder it will be to get people to [come back and] sign up.”

A little more than one-quarter of the 209,000 users who began to register on healthcare.gov on Monday or Tuesday of this week finished the process, WSJ reported. “As more of those users attempted to sign up for plans this week, insurers began noticing problems with enrollment data,” WSJ said. “For now, they say they are largely able to manually correct the errors. But as enrollment increases—up to 7 million consumers are expected to sign up in the next 5½ months—that may not be possible, they worry."

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Core systems Digital distribution
MORE FROM DIGITAL INSURANCE