CNBC reports:
A crucial system for making payments to insurers from people who enroll in that federal Obamacare marketplace 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 before a House subcommittee that a significant fraction of HealthCare.gov—30 to 40 percent of it—has yet to be constructed.
"We still need to build the payments system to make the payments [to insurance companies] in January," testified Chao, deputy chief information officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that operates HealthCare.gov.
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. The tool will, when it works, transmit the subsidies that the government is kicking in for many enrollees to offset the costs of their monthly premiums.
May it never be built.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the payment infrastructure problem is academic if they can't even get people to sign in.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Henry. Web-based merchant services are always so much easier to design and implement than a basic consumer interface. You did such a bang up job with that component, it will be a piece of cake to complete the rest in 6-10 weeks.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to keep an eye on your bank accounts, enrollees (chumps?), that first EFT should be coming anyday now