Posted on 11/19/2013 1:19:32 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder
A crucial system for making payments to insurers from the federal Obamacare marketplace, HealthCare.gov, has yet to be built, a senior government IT official admitted Tuesday.
The official, Henry Chao, visibly stunned Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) when he said under questioning that a significant fraction of that online insurance marketplace has yet to be constructed.
(Read more: Low-bamacare enrollment)
Getty Images Henry Chao, deputy CIO and deputy director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Office of Information Services, testifies during a hearing before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "We still need to build the payments system to make the payments [to insurance companies] in January," Chao said during testimony. That so-called financial management tool was originally supposed to be part of HealthCare.gov when it launched Oct. 1, but officials later suspended its launch as part of their effort to get the consumer interface part of the site ready.
Chao on Tuesday said other areas that need to be built include "the back-office systems, the accounting systems."
Overall, Chao said, about 30 percent to 40 percent of the federal Obamacare marketplace has yet to be developed. Chao is deputy chief information officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that operates HealthCare.gov.
Chao said the consumer part of that website, which enrolls people in Obamacare insurance plans, is totally built.
(Read more: Obamacare IT Chao warned of 'plane crash' for HealthCare.gov) "The online application, verification, documentation, plan compare, generating enrollment, that's 100 percent," Chao said.
But the revelation startled some observers. "That's like setting up an online bank without setting up a way to make deposits," an industry source told CNBC.
"The parts of the marketplace that were essential for consumers to be able to apply for eligibility and select a plan were live on Oct. 1," said Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for HHS. "The additional functionality that has not been launched has to do with pieces that are not needed until 2014."
HealthCare.gov is comprised of "distinct pieces of functionality that, together, make up the full integrated system—plan management, eligibility and enrollment and financial management," Peters continued.
"As we have said, CMS prioritized essential functionality to be live on Oct. 1 to ensure that consumers would be able to apply for eligibility and select a plan. Other functionality will come online over time. This is a complex project with a short timeline—and as such issues were prioritized to meet the Oct. 1 launch date. As part of this prioritization, back-end tools, including financial management, monthly enrollment reconciliation and risk adjustment, which are not consumer facing and not essential until 2014 will be rolled out in the coming months." The financial management tool manages the payment processing between marketplaces and issuers. Monthly enrollment reconciliation refers to the tool that makes sure there is agreement between the enrollment numbers maintained by HealthCare.gov and the same numbers maintained by the insurers. And the risk adjustment program gives monetary payments to insurers that disproportionately attract people with chronic conditions, and others whose uses of insurance could end up costing insurers more money than they take in in premiums.
Chao and other Obama administration officials have been lambasted since Oct. 1 for the glitch-laden launch of HealthCare.gov, which with just 27,000 people enrolled in 36 states over one month has grossly underperformed original expectations. The administration had originally estimated that 7 million people would enroll in Obamacare insurance plans by March 31, but that goal remains in peril.
Three years and $700 million in tax dollars and the thing is still a steaming pile of garbage???
Someone needs to go to PRISON!
But then again, there was:
- IRS Targeting
- Benghazi
- Fast and Furious
- Perjury of Eric Holder
- Shovel-ready jobs that never were
- Sebelius demanding campaign payments from health care companies
- Cash for clunkers that wasted tens of millions
- Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson used the name “Richard Windsor” for off-line (illegal) EPA e-mails
- The lost Solyndra billions of tax money
- The GM shakedown of bondholders
- GM dealers in Republican districts targeted
Just when does Obama EVER get held accountable? When?
This is such a mess. You don’t suppose, do you, that obamacare was designed to fail?
Who would benefit? You don’t suppose the insurance companies who will now reinstate your cancelled policies at much higher rates? With far higher deductibles?
From the beginning of obamacare, my question was, “who really benefits from this?” And the answer kept coming up, “it’s the insurance companies, stupid.”
It's a Potemkin website.
-PJ
Well you are talking about a class of people who have never created anything in their lives.
How many are still convinced Obama’s team is not trying to create economic and social chaos?
Yep! To your if question, not one person has completed the enrollment process! Every so called application is stopped and pending in shopping carts.
This system was comprehended by people who have never paid for anything and can’t comprehend a free market. Socialist pieces of excrement! I would have said “designed” but there is no design in this system and the people who did it don’t care. They need a 2nd amendment solution.
,” said Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for HHS. “The additional functionality that has not been launched has to do with pieces that are not needed until 2014.” She is so wrong....the policies need to be paid for by December 15th to become effective on January 1. So by my math they have less than a month to get that working.
- …JUST TAKE IT OUT OF THE $2500 A YEAR IN SAVINGS IN ANNUAL HEALTHCARE PLAN COSTS THAT OBAMA PROMISED I WOULD HAVE
so....the insurance companies are supposed to circle the wagons to protect Obama and save this turkey, when the part of the website that ensures they get paid DOESN’T EVEN EXIST???
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
True, but they have been good at assessing political advantage. It should have been obvious that a half-assed job here would have political blowback. I think they were just so full of themselves from an almost unbroken string of prior political success that they figured this would work out somehow.
Get a load of this!
From my experience in benefits administration for years, health insurers demand to be paid in advance for the premiums and they don’t allow you to be very many days late or they will drop coverage.
Maybe I should invest in a popcorn farm.
They probably never paid any bills in their lives either.
Nah, they're not that good. But I do think liberals are very guilty of magical thinking. They want it ready on October 1 - so it will be! They want it to solve all healthcare woes, so it will!
“From my experience in benefits administration for years, health insurers demand to be paid in advance......
you realize, of course, this leads directly to gov’t bailouts for all these ins cos?
I know. I know. This is just getting worse and worse.
Yea, for those greedy insurers that want to be paid on time.
The O’Communist website reminds me of a Hollywood back lot creation of an Old West town. All the buildings on Main Street are just flat facades with nothing behind them.
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