Employee Benefit News for School, City and County Employers

Healthcare.gov paying insurance companies through 'guesswork'

Written by Valerie Ortiz | Dec 9, 2013 2:02:20 PM

As glitches in the Healthcare.gov website continue President Barack Obama's administration IT professionals made an attempt to reconcile the issues, although for many some questions remain. 

It would appear as if the administration is asking the same thing, with White House officials now encouraging shoppers of the federal site to "double-check" their statuses, according to The Guardian. 

While front-end website operations seem to have been repaired, concerns over the functionality of back-end operations are now in question. The issue has been confusing for insurance companies that are affected by the yet unbuilt payment portion of the site, according to Town Hall.

In an attempt to help customers discover if their coverage was approved, Jay Carney, White House spokesman, said the agency behind the portal was reaching out to shoppers to let them know if they received coverage, Town Hall reported. 

When Carney was asked by reporters if the administration could guarantee customers who enrolled would be covered by Jan. 1, he said shoppers need to check on their own behalf. 

"What I would say is that CMS is reaching out to those who have enrolled to make sure they know the steps they need to take to ensure coverage kicks in," Carney said. "If consumers are not sure if they are enrolled they should call our customer call center or the insurer of their choice to make sure they are covered by January 1st."