Posted on 12/03/2013 6:33:47 PM PST by kcvl
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration has found a short-term fix to pay insurance companies for plans selected on HealthCare.gov, the not-yet-complete government website used to shop for insurance required under Obama's healthcare program.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has not yet finished building the part of the website that would transfer billions of dollars in subsidies for plan premiums and cost-sharing payments to insurance companies.
It is part of a long technical to-do list that has so far focused on fixing the errors and lag times in the part of the website used by consumers.
The administration recently overhauled HealthCare.gov after its botched launch two months ago. The fixes are now expected to allow millions of Americans to shop for insurance.
The healthcare program faces a critical test to enroll hundreds of thousands of people by December 23, the deadline for people who need insurance coverage starting on January 1, 2014.
Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for CMS, said the government will make the payments to insurers for premium tax credits and cost sharing on time.
"We are committed to making sure they get paid in January and we will continue to work with them on that process," she told reporters.
The administration is planning a "workaround" for payments, said Daniel Durham, vice president for policy and regulatory affairs at America's Health Insurance Plans.
Health plans will estimate how much they are owed, and submit that estimate to the government. Once the system is built, the government and insurers can reconcile the payments made with the plan data to "true up" payments, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wkzo.com ...
What a f’n mess!
Obama is going to estimate how much the government owes insurance companies since they haven’t built the payment part of the website. Then the insurance companies will settle up later.
Short term fixes
Work-arounds
Estimates
True it up later
None of that was ever necessary. The health insurance industry was never broken. But it sure is now.
Yes, it is definitely screwed up now!!!
So people don’t actually have to pay premiums (in the beginning)? The fed pays for them? Oh Gawd. Government going to pay the deductibles also?
Does this sound like a plan designed by someone who has never run anything in his freakin life?! I don’t know how this could get anymore screwed up but I’m almost positive it will!!!!
I bet the enrollment rate is going to pick up considerably when people find out they don’t have to pay for the first year!!!
And then in the second year when the IRS deducts $18,000 from their bank accounts to reconcile it will be quite amusing!
Been on Megyn’s show since 9.
We ARE now living in the Twilight Zone!
Obamacare is designed to reward friends and punish enemies.
I doubt many of the “friends” have 1800 in an account let alone 18000.
8:16 Minutes
New Obamacare Bombshell - Rpt: No System Yet For Exchange Payment -The Kelly File
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exkwoa_LXs0
Paying insurers on time and accurately is critical for the long-term competitiveness of Obamacare marketplaces, said Kevin Lucia, senior research fellow at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute.
“I’m pretty deeply concerned about this,” Lucia said at a forum organized by the university and law firm Arent Fox.
Some large insurance carriers could “cushion” delayed payments for a short period of time, said Lucia, a former CMS official. But that’s not the case for a group of co-ops and smaller insurance providers.
About two-dozen co-ops will start up with their first customers on January 1 and have said they are concerned about how enrollment delays are affecting their finances during the first quarter.
Small insurers also have a lot at stake as these new anticipated members are expected to make up a bigger portion of their total revenue. The individual business is only a small part of revenues at large insurers, which focus on employer-based coverage and private Medicare.
“They cannot survive if they don’t get paid. And even the larger carriers, it can only go on for so long,” Lucia said. “The last thing we need is for a carrier, especially a large carrier, to walk away from this.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/04/us-usa-healthcare-payments-idUSBRE9B301U20131204
Maybe you could help out a little bit with that 18K - after all - as candidate Zero said to Joe the Plumber “ it’s good to spread the wealth around a little bit ( or a lot)
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