Dive Brief:
- Troubled by HealthCare.gov's persistent problems, large health insurers are asking the White House to let them enroll patients entitled to subsidies directly, bypassing the troubled site.
- Insurers want access to the federal system that determines eligibility for a subsidy; working through that interface would lower the traffic load on HealthCare.gov and improve service, they say.
- Federal officials, for their part, say they want to protect personal data, such as tax and financial data and immigration status.
Dive Insight:
While HHS head Kathleen Sebelius says that HealthCare.gov's problems will be largely resolved by the end of November, anyone who's dealt with a large, complicated, balky IT installation knows that she could be wrong. Given the importance of getting enrollees processed, there must be some workaround possible, even if the insurance industry's plan doesn't suit HHS. The only real option the feds have offered is to let Americans enroll without completing the paperwork, and that creates mountains of difficulty of its own. Let's hope the government finds some middle way to handle this critically important issue.