Healthcare reform

More than a third of the ‘back end’ infrastructure still remains to be built in the federally-run marketplace, top IT official at CMS says Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Expenditures in the $2.7 trillion U.S. health care system have doubled since 1980, growing to 18% of gross domestic product and leading to financial success for drugmakers, hospitals and insurers.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee say it shows that public promises the project was on schedule from top administration officials were incorrect.

Exchange leaders in the Golden State, Connecticut, New York and Oregon share solid numbers on exchange-registered brokers.

The technology issues plaguing the federal exchanges have hampered enrollment in state-run exchanges — which are largely free of glitches — causing some states to modify their marketing techniques.

The ACA's pediatric dental requirement brings increased attention to this popular benefit.

President Barack Obama pressed top U.S. insurers to help consumers cope with the rocky start of his health care law as the Republican-led House passed a bill that would let Americans keep their current policies through 2014.

If enrollment in the online marketplaces repeats the pattern set in the Massachusetts exchange that was the model for Obamacare, the young people vital to the plan’s financial stability are paying little attention to the federal website’s mishaps.

The announcement that insurance carriers can offer one-year renewals for plans that were cancelled for not being compliant with the Affordable Care Act will have no effect on large employers, most of whom are currently in the middle of open enrollment. Small group plans, however, could be affected.

A broker and former Golden State-exchange staffer say that enrollment numbers do not reflect billing or payment.

A NAHU representative testified Thursday on Capitol Hill about the positives and negatives of self-funding before a committee interested in touting it to small business owners.

An agent explains the difficult steps that would need to be taken to renew canceled plans, while a health insurance trade group says the president’s announcement Thursday could “destabilize the market.”

America’s Health Insurance Plans issues a statement about President Obama's remarks today on the Affordable Care Act.

With the decision, state governors and insurance commissioners would have the authority to keep would-be canceled plans active until the end of 2014.

Brokers operating in the federally run exchange states remain frustrated with broker functions on the website, as the government announces lop-sided enrollment numbers for the state versus federal exchanges.

The lopsided enrollment between Medicaid, which is paid for with taxpayer money, and the private plans may boost criticism of the rising costs of the $1.4 trillion health law. High participation in the exchanges is critical to keeping the costs of medical coverage down.

While confusion and acrimony dominate discussions over Healthcare.gov, HR sources are reporting few if any concerns from their workforce populations, most of whom are snug and secure in their employer-sponsored health care.

As few as 20 or 30 enrollments per state per day are greeting the Obamacare marketplaces. With more congressional hearings on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act set to start tomorrow in the House, will lawmakers get some answers?

Walgreen Co. become the latest large employer to make significant changes to its employee health plan when it announced that it will move approximately 160,000 of its employees onto a private health insurance exchange, starting in 2014. The strategy is starting to look like a trend: Over the last several months, IBM, Time Warner, Sears Holdings and Darden Restaurants have all made similar announcements.

As the president directs aides to look for solutions to the health plan cancellations, the White House’s chief technology officer will appear before Congress this week after being subpoenaed to do so.