Reuters Gets It -- A Day Late And A Dollar Short; On-Line Exchanges Can't Even Capture Small Trickle Of Enrollees Correctly

Updates

October 18, 2013: the Federal website can't even handle the small trickle of enrollees.

Insurers say the federal health-care marketplace is generating flawed data that is straining their ability to handle even the trickle of enrollees who have gotten through so far, in a sign that technological problems extend further than the website traffic and software issues already identified.

Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans.

The flaws could do lasting damage to the law if customers are deterred from signing up or mistakenly believe they have obtained coverage.

Original Post

Reuters is reporting:

As U.S. officials warned that the technology behind Obamacare might not be ready to launch on October 1, the administration was pouring tens of millions of dollars more than it had planned into the federal website meant to enroll Americans in the biggest new social program since the 1960s. 

A Reuters review of government documents shows that the contract to build the federal Healthcare.gov online insurance website - key to President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform - tripled in potential total value to nearly $292 million as new money was assigned to the work beginning in April this year. 

The increase coincided with warnings from federal and state officials that the information technology underlying the online marketplaces, or exchanges, where people could buy Obamacare health insurance was in trouble. In March, Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer at the lead Obamacare agency, said at an insurance-industry meeting that he was "pretty nervous" about the exchanges being ready by October 1, adding, "let's just make sure it's not a third-world experience." At the same event, his colleague Gary Cohen said, "Everyone recognizes that day one will not be perfect."

That was an understatement. Not only was opening day not perfect, by all standards it was a failure. I'm not sure it even measured up to a third-world experience. 

The story is not news for regular readers of the blog. What is interesting is that mainstream media outlets like Reuters are now seeing how bad this is. On top of everything else, the technology was built by the lowest bidder.

The president and Congress now own it. It will be interesting to see if Ms Sebelius resigns sooner or later.