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So you think you've succeeded in making it through the ObamaCare website maze, and now have health insurance? You might want to think again.
Despite the Obama administration's claim that HealthCare.gov is "vastly improved," insurance companies are still grappling with error-riddled files fed to them from the flawed website. The lingering glitch could cause major problems weeks down the road, resulting in people thinking they've signed up when insurance companies have no record of them doing so.
These so-called "back-end" problems were largely glossed over when federal health officials confidently claimed over the weekend they had met their own goals for improving the website by Dec. 1.
Administration officials said early Sunday that they have fixed roughly 400 computer "bugs" and increased capacity so the site can now handle more than 800,000 users daily with an error rate of less than 1 percent. Jeff Zients, the official appointed to fix the ObamaCare site since its disastrous Oct. 1 rollout, said it is "night and day from what it was."
But insurers continue to deal with the same set of problems that has shaken their confidence for weeks in the system they have to rely on to enroll new customers.
"Until the enrollment process is working from end-to-end, many consumers will not be able to enroll in coverage," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement.
She said "significant 'back-end' issues'" need to be addressed, and particularly the "ongoing problems" processing enrollment files known as "834 files."
These are forms that give insurance companies basic information about would-be customers.