In this list of key Obamacare provisions effective for the plan year beginning this January, which ones apply to you, and are you ready?

The state-run exchanges in Washington and Kentucky have received positive press about their websites working in comparison to the federal, but brokers haven’t had much hand in the success.

Acknowledging Thursday that the exchange system “wasn’t tested enough,” CMS’ director of communications responded to issues brought up by government contractors earlier in the day on Capitol Hill.

Health care fraud will come at employers at an alarming rate, in part because the Affordable Care Act opens insurance up to millions of people who have little or no experience buying health insurance, says fraud expert Chuck Whitlock.

Lawmakers grilled four government contractors Thursday morning on the Healthcare.gov glitches. CGI Group, the lead software developer for the 36 federally-run exchanges, acknowledged the problems but asserted that the final choice to "go live" on Oct. 1 was up to the CMS.

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To repair its troubled health care website, the Obama administration may need to add project workers with fresh talent, take portions of the system off line for days or weeks, and conduct more comprehensive tests to prevent crashes and delays, technology experts say.

Avalere Health’s Elizabeth Carpenter urges everyone to remember the big picture, not just the Obamacare marketplace, “but also on the broader health care system and how things are evolving.”

A recent survey conducted by the National Business Group on Health shows surprisingly different results about employee ACA knowledge than a similar poll the organization commissioned in the summer.

Helen Darling, NBGH president and CEO, says about a third (32%) of employees surveyed also believe that the overall quality of their health care benefits will drop as the ACA begins to roll out.

As intelligence emerges about failed and rushed testing in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 1 launch of Healthcare.gov, an expert close to state-run exchanges says these issues may not be as easily fixed as the president alluded to on Monday.

The introduction was so rushed that, as recently as last week, the exchange’s computer code contained placeholder language that programmers typically use in preliminary drafts.

One expert says the state systems do, by comparison, seem to be enjoying some smoother sailing, though major backlogs and service interruptions have been reported in systems from coast to coast.

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President Barack Obama said the widespread flaws afflicting online insurance exchanges under his health care law represent only a portion of the program, as he sought to fend off critics of his signature legislative achievement.

“Health care costs continue to rise, and as employers look at ways to combat that, there are a number of tactics they might take,” Guardian’s Ray Marra tells EBN. “One of those tactics is to go self-funded, and obviously for self-funded, they need to build some high-end claim protection for themselves…”

The HHS says that despite the technology limitations almost 500,000 Americans have now submitted applications for health insurance through all 51 exchanges.

Answers to plan participants’ burning questions.

The shutdown is over and the debt ceiling has been vaulted, but those watching the deal come out of Congress say just because the ACA and employee benefits were largely left out of the fray, it doesn’t mean they won’t feature prominently in future budget debates.

The shutdown is over and the debt ceiling has been vaulted, but those watching the deal come out of Congress say just because Obamacare and employee benefits were largely left out of the fray, it doesn’t mean they won’t feature prominently in future budget debates.