The Obamacare healthcare website botched as many as one in four enrollment transmissions to insurance companies in October and November, a federal health official said Friday.
The admission from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the first officially released error rate for enrollment records known as 834 forms, which are transmitted every night from the federal online system to each participating health plan,
The Hill reported.
The error rate means the administration has about 6,700 enrollments to re-check with insurance companies from the month of October alone, when about 26,800 people enrolled in private plans through Healthcare.gov.
Currently, Julie Bataille, director of communications for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, estimated one in 10 records from people who are enrolling contain mistakes.
"We need to have these conversations at a very individualized level with plans directly so that we can reconcile our records ... and identify any consumers that fall into this category," Bataille said in a phone call with reporters.
Bataille didn’t directly recommend Obamacare consumers confirm their registrations with insurance companies, but suggested that would happen naturally as applicants pay their first premiums — the final step in getting covered.
During the marketplace’s first few days, most insurers reported the defects in the online system were preventing them from receiving any 834 forms as intended. Since then, insurers have complained of a variety of other errors,
the Washington Post reported.
In some instances, known as "orphan reports," the insurers were still not receiving records of people who had enrolled, learning of such customers only if they happened to contact their insurer themselves, the Post noted.
Other errors have included duplicative enrollment and cancellation notices for the same person, incorrect information about family members, and mistakes involving federal subsidies.
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