HBE Chief of Staff Pam MacEwan (right) and Policy Director Molly Voris respond to questions.
In contrast to the ongoing problems at the federal health care exchange website, Washington State has been singled out by national media as one of the best examples of doing it right. But now in addition to the shutdown and other minor problems during its launch week, the State Health Benefit Exchange (HBE) has discovered a new problem. At the HBE Board meeting on Wednesday, staff acknowledged that the health insurance subsidy calculator was not working properly. However, HBE staff could not comment on the extent of the problem.
Friday afternoon the HBE acknowledged that “Exchange staff uncovered and corrected a system error that has affected 8,000 Washington Healthplanfinder applicants applying for qualified health plans.” The error resulted in lower income applicants being shown subsidies higher than authorized. The error was traced to inconsistent file formats being shared between the state and federal data services.
All affected applicants will be notified.
On wednesday, speaking to the other problems encountered during launch week, HBE IT Tech leads described the challenges trying to “optimize an inadequate time to test.” HBE Board Chair Margaret Stanley reminded the audience that the inadequate test times were primarily due to federal delays.
HBE staff also announced that they will be doubling the number of staff in their toll-free Customer Support Center where wait tines and call lengths have exceeded expectations.
In other action the HBE Board approved a new state grant request, seeking an additional $92 million from the federal government. The one-year Level I Grant request will be submitted on November 15. To date the state has received over $180 million in federal grants to develop and operate the exchange. Board member Ben Danielson expressed dissatisfaction with the inadequate time for members and stakeholders to review the grant request, but acknowledged the time constraints during the last month with the launch of the website.
Other discussions focused on the initial payment process and broker issues.
To view Board meeting materials, go to http://wahbexchange.org/news-resources/calendar/board-meeting23/ .
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