ACA and the Glitches in the Registration Process, Possibly Many Weeks Away from Correcting...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny


As the administration acknowledges the myriad of technical problems with the healthcare exchange marketplace (and feigns anger) contractors have identified most of the problems but worry it may be weeks away before all issues are resolved. This is because the Obama Administration has been slow (remis) in issuing orders to fix the flaws.

From The New York Times.

Federal contractors have identified most of the main problems crippling President Obama’s online health insurance marketplace, but the administration has been slow to issue orders for fixing those flaws, and some contractors worry that the system may be weeks away from operating smoothly, people close to the project say.

Administration officials approached the contractors last week to see if they could perform the necessary repairs and reboot the system by Nov. 1. However, that goal struck many contractors as unrealistic, at least for major components of the system. Some specialists working on the project said the online system required such extensive repairs that it might not operate smoothly until after the Dec. 15 deadline for people to sign up for coverage starting in January...

In interviews, experts said the technological problems of the site went far beyond the roadblocks to creating accounts that continue to prevent legions of users from even registering. Indeed, several said, the login problems, though vexing to consumers, may be the easiest to solve. One specialist said that as many as five million lines of software code may need to be rewritten before the Web site runs properly.

“The account creation and registration problems are masking the problems that will happen later,” said one person involved in the repair effort.

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One major problem slowing repairs, people close to the program say, is that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency in charge of the exchange, is responsible for making sure that the separately designed databases and pieces of software from 55 contractors work together. It is not common for a federal agency to assume that role, and numerous people involved in the project said the agency did not have the expertise to do the job and did not fully understand what it entailed.

The people close to the project spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the system’s problems.

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A part of the system, hidden from users, draws data from several federal and state databases to determine if consumers qualify for coverage and then calculates the subsidies for which they may be eligible. Another part of the system sends enrollment data to insurers. Several people involved in the project say that problems like those of the last three weeks are not uncommon when software from several companies is combined into a large, complex system.

Insurance executives said in interviews that they were frustrated because they did not know the government’s plan or schedule for repairs. Insurers have found that the system provides them with incorrect information about some enrollees, repeatedly enrolls and cancels the enrollments of others, and simply loses the enrollments of still others.

Correcting those errors, specialists said, could require extensive rewriting of software code. Insurers said it could be weeks before their data and the government’s could be reconciled.

Accurate enrollment data is essential. Even if consumers bypass the federal Web site and go directly to insurance companies to sign up for coverage, the Treasury Department will still need enrollment data to pay tens of billions of dollars in subsidies promised to insurers.

Confidential government documents show that some technical fixes have been made to the federal Web site, and specialists say the site is slowly improving.

Nevertheless, disarray has distinguished the project. In the last 10 months alone, government documents show, officials modified hardware and software requirements for the exchange seven times. It went live on Oct. 1 before the government and contractors had fully tested the complete system. Delays by the government in issuing specifications for the system reduced the time available for testing. {Read the Full Story Here}

As America and her frustrations continue over the current ACA registration process glitches she can only wait and hope the process improves and the ACA itself runs smoother and better than its initial signup rollout. Only time will tell. It is after all the law of the land and it ain't going anywhere. Irrespective of the Tea Party, Cruz, Rubio, Gohmert and the rest of the minority working to find ways to insure its failure.

Via: Memeorandum

Comments

  1. I've used it and had no problems, so...

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulations jmj, you're on of the lucky minority. Be sure to shoot a email to the White House PR department. After today's spin by Obama he sure could use your good news!

    Seriously, is your state one of the 14 I think it is that is not using the federal website to register.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I mean that set up their own? I hear those states are fairing much better.

    By the way, did your insurance premiums and deductibles stay the same, go down, or go up? By what percentage? I'll trust you will be honest.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'll personally be better off, but I have to wait for income reasons. I test ran it for myself and a couple others and ran into the same problem with verification we're all hearing about. Considering the size and scope of this endeavor, and having had some years experience in steering new systems in the corporate world, I can't say I'm surprised at all about these glitches. The states that were on top of this are going to be better off anyway, as they mostly already are when it comes to healthcare. The Red States have lousy healthcare anyway, so not much to see there.

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
  5. Far from a computer geek, I'm not surprised at the ACA problems. It took me a couple of years of
    passwords, IDs, acct #s, verifications, phone calls to the Corp HQ, phone calls to the security subcontractor and help from my area rep just to sign into the company that has my annuities. Damn, those punch cards for rocket equations were so easy back in the day!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm wondering if the glitches are still unresolved in time for everyone to successfully get registered by the Dec.15, 2013 deadline if the Creator of the ACA is going to opt for extending or just say screw it. I'm sticking to my deadline as well as my spin.

    ReplyDelete

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