Healthcare reform

Health insurers stand to gain millions of customers in an expansion of private insurance options and the Medicaid program under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The industry, though, has raised alarms about faulty data they’ve received from the federal exchange since it opened on Oct. 1.

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.”

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.

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.

The “bugs” that have plagued the rollout of U.S. health insurance exchanges will be fixed by Dec. 15, said Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, the lead author of the 2010 health care law.

The Obama administration said it has reached out to the “best and brightest” from inside and outside of government to get its health insurance exchange up to speed, even as it faces another missed deadline for the rollout.

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

In the most populous state in nation, agents are not happy with the way the state-run health care exchange is treating them and there are many more road bumps to cross in the near future, said a San Diego-area broker Friday at AHIP’s State Issues Conference.

As the dust settles and national monuments reopen and all those furloughed government workers (and cash-starved private sector workers they support and interact with) go back to work today, the danger may be that Broader America may actually focus some attention on what the ACA will actually mean to them. Especially as it was not all magically wiped away in some Tea Party inspired publicity stunt.

After the partisan passions and heated rhetoric, the disruptions of a government shutdown and displays of dysfunction, Congress did what it could have done weeks ago: voted to fund the government and lift the debt limit.

Eleven days into the federal government shutdown, employee benefits attorneys assess the short-term and long-term potential implications for your business and benefits strategy.

Cigna has instructed brokers to halt selling insurance to individuals who are subsidy-eligible through its federal health care exchange broker portals.

Real estate company Keller Williams is one of the latest big firms to announce it’s offering associates access to a private health care exchange. Keller Williams’ independently owned and operated offices employ about 89,000 real estate agents — many of whom don’t have health insurance — across the country.

Recognizing the challenges (and headaches) involved in taking care of setting up their own benefits plans, a majority of small businesses say they recognize the need for an outside adviser to help.

As many of you may have predicted – or secretly feared, or even hoped for – October has indeed been one incredibly wild ride for anyone connected in even an ancillary fashion to the ACA. Or those of you who happen to have anything to do with the daily operations of the federal government.

Staff at Walgreens stores will direct customers who ask about the exchanges to the GoHealth Marketplace, where they can shop and compare health insurance plans, enroll and find other tools and information.

Exchange prep, however, will go a long way to help employers prepare for the delayed employer mandate. Figure out whether you are an applicable large employer and if you are, start measuring. Otherwise, you could be left scrambling.