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MADRID (MarketWatch) -- Bitcoin prices fell on Friday after exchange Mt. Gox said it was halting withdrawals temporarily. The company said an increase in flow of withdrawals requests "has hindered our efforts on a technical level. To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state," said Mt. Gox officials in a note on the website Friday. To resolve the issue, it said a temporarily pause on all withdrawal requests was needed. Its tech team was working on its system, Mt. Gox added, and an update will be provided by Monday.

Minnesota isn't alone in wasting federal dollars on failing exchanges. ObamaCare exchanges built by Oregon, Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont also are suffering serious-to-fatal problems. These six states — all solidly Democratic — received $1.2 billion in ObamaCare grants, according to official tallies by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Those dysfunctional six are in addition to 35 states that initially accepted funds to build exchanges that never got built.

While limping along in the short-run with its troubled website, MNsure must quickly pick a strategy for making long-term software fixes and get beyond the recent "crisis mode" that has dominated program management, according to a consultant's report released Wednesday. Some improvements can be made in the coming weeks, but the website can't be completely fixed by the March 31 deadline for people to obtain health insurance, according to a report from Optum, a unit of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group. The company recommended doubling the call center workforce with the equivalent of 100 full-time workers, and utilizing an Optum call center...

The review identifies a number of fundamental problems with MNsure.org, including: — Lack of capacity for tying together all data entered by consumers. — The inability for users to make changes to information they entered during the open enrollment period. — Lack of access for workers to assist consumers who are shopping for insurance plans. — Multiple sets of rules governing the website operations that lead to the potential for errors as they overlap. — Inadequate testing capabilities for website functions. In addition to rampant problems with the website, the Optum review tackled the MNsure toll-free call center, which has...

Target Corp. said Tuesday that it will stop offering health insurance to its part-time employees because new online health exchanges offer workers an opportunity to buy coverage. The Minneapolis-based retailer will give each worker $500 to help buy health insurance, and has arranged for one-on-one consultations with benefits manager Towers Watson to help with the transition. The retailer announced the decision through its online site, “A Bullseye View: Behind the Scenes at Target,” in a Q&A with Jodee Kozlak, Target’s executive vice president of human resources. In the article, Kozlak acknowledged the disruption to workers. But she said the exchanges...

Nearly a half million Californians enrolled in Obamacare health plans through the end of December, according to data released Monday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 498,794 Californians picked health exchange plans, which gives the state 23 percent of the nearly 2.1 million enrollments nationwide. Considering the state has about 12 percent of the nation’s population, California has been more effective than other states in enrolling residents. The state has nearly met the lower threshold of predictions that call for 500,000 to 700,000 Californians to buy policies by March 31. “There is a feeling of optimism here...

For the second time in as many weeks, an official associated with Cover Oregon, the state’s troubled health-care exchange, has resigned. Executive director Rodney King submitted his resignation earlier this week after a month of medical leave In his letter, King explained that stepping down was “not an easy decision,” but cited the uncertainty of his health as his main reason. His resignation will go into effect in March when his medical leave ends.

As Oracle Corp. programmers try to fix problems with its work on the state's health insurance website, Cover Oregon is bringing in outside experts to make sure the company isn't adding new bugs at the same time. The exchange's interim director, Bruce Goldberg, said Monday he's hiring people with the skills to look at programming code as it is being written to ensure "it is done correctly and we don't have to continue to go back and fix bugs in the system." Goldberg's statement turns up the heat on Oracle and provides perhaps the most direct acknowledgement yet that the...

“I believe this is one of the most closed, obtuse, misdirecting, camouflaging agencies I have every dealt with.” Source: WCCO’s Pat Kessler, in an interview with Dan Barreiro on KFAN, December 18, 2013

The chief of Minnesota's health insurance exchange has resigned abruptly after facing criticism over the rollout and a questionably timed vacation. April Todd-Malmlov submitted her resignation Tuesday evening during a closed session of MNsure's governing board. She had been under increasing pressure over insurance sign-up problems and failed to get a vote of confidence from Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton last week. She was a key figure in Minnesota's adaptation to the federal health overhaul since 2011. But after the Oct. 1 enrollment launch, MNsure's Website encountered technical issues and a backup call center didn't fare much better. Questions over Todd-Malmlov's...

The consumers initially were told they wouldn't get tax credits because of problems in the MNsure system that were first disclosed in November. The state government launched MNsure this fall to implement the federal Affordable Care Act, and officials are calling all those who require do-overs to provide instruction. The scope of the tax credit problem became clear Monday as users continued to be frustrated by the MNsure call center and website as they rushed to finalize coverage details before a Dec. 23 deadline. The website wasn't available Monday for people trying to fill out new applications. Meanwhile, officials confirmed...

In October, Obama took to the Rose Garden to praise Connecticut’s state-run ACA exchange, Access Health CT, for being a rare success story among the nationwide failures of state exchanges and the federal exchange. Local CT media was quick to point out his speech was misleading, however. In his push to encourage the young to sign up, Obama mentioned that one-third of Connecticut enrollees were under 35, and were now receiving “a good deal at low cost.” In reality, a full two-thirds of that one-third had signed on for Medicaid or CHIP, programs which fit the description of “welfare,” not...

Capitol Hill staffers who signed up for ObamaCare through the Washington, D.C., healthcare exchange, called DC Health Link (DCHL), are being told to confirm their enrollments in person, and not to rely on data provided by the website. The Hill obtained an email sent to staffers on Wednesday warning them, “it is essential that you confirm your coverage in DCHL through the Disbursing Office.” “Do not rely on your ‘My Account’ page or other correspondence from DCHL,” the email reads. “Please do not assume you are covered unless you have seen the confirmation letter from the Disbursing Office,” the email...

The federal health care exchange is incorrectly determining that some people are eligible for Medicaid when they clearly are not, leaving them with little chance to get the subsidized insurance they are entitled to as the Dec. 23 deadline for enrollment approaches.

MNSure, the state's health care exchange, is vulnerable to a specific kind of WiFi attack. We discovered this vulnerability during a simulated attack we ran recently. MNSure denies it has a problem and blames users. 5 Eyewitness News wanted to see how MNSure compares with other state-run health care exchanges. It's why we partnered with Mark Lanterman at Computer Forensic Services to test at least a dozen other exchange sites. More than 41% of the sites tested passed, meaning they are not vulnerable to the type of WiFi attack we simulated. Like MNSure, more than 58% failed the test

LOS ANGELES – The California health exchange says it's been giving the names of tens of thousands of consumers to insurance agents without their permission or knowledge in an effort to hit deadlines for coverage. The consumers in question had gone online to research insurance options but didn't ask to be contacted, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. Officials with Covered California, the exchange set up in response to the federal health law, said they began providing names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses if available this week in a pilot program. They said they thought it would help people...

Minnesota health insurers say they still aren't getting complete information about enrollees in MNsure, the state's health insurance exchange, and the delays could prevent people from having coverage Jan. 1. Data being sent to the health plans contain inaccuracies, omissions and in some cases conflicting information about which policy an enrollee is selecting, according to a letter sent to state officials Friday by Julie Brunner, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, a trade group. Insurers also say time is growing short to manually fix the problems -- particularly with an expected surge

White House press secretary Jay Carney sidestepped questions Monday about whether the president has signed up for health insurance under ObamaCare. “I know that he will and has said that he will, the White House has said that he will, but I don't have an update,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Monday. Asked what the president was waiting for — and whether his attempt to enroll in the exchange would be open to members of the press — Carney laughed. “I'll get back to you,” he said. In 2010, White House spokesman Reid Cherlin pledged the...

Look to the states, say Obamacare proponents desperate for success stories. A state they won’t be looking to is Hawaii, where the rollout of the health-care law has been an epic fiasco. We’ve been told over the past few weeks that states invested in Obamacare have been able to make it work. On November 12, for instance, the Washington Post noted relatively high enrollment (which means in the tens of thousands) in New York, Washington, Colorado, and Kentucky, adding that “all are among the states that embraced Obamacare and crafted their own exchanges rather than rely on the federal site,...

In what could be the biggest handicap to getting people to sign up for ObamaCare, the public is overwhelmingly concerned about the security of the information compiled by the ObamaCare exchange. The latest IBD/TIPP poll finds that fully 78% say Americans should be concerned about the security features of the ObamaCare exchange website, and 53% say they should be "very concerned." This view was shared across parties, with 69% of Democrats saying security concerns are warranted. More worrisome for the success of the law, 82% of young people between ages 18 and 24 say concern is justified. These are among...