Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Coveroregon "We are testing up until the very last minute"

It is October 1 and Coveroregon is supposed to be ready to enroll people in the Exchange created by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), but the people running the show are saying the system is not quite ready yet.  In an article at Oregonlive.com the agency said that thy are still having problems computing the actual premiums that people will pay given all the factors that go into tax credits and the Healthy Kids programs.  It sounds like another month of development is needed before they overcome this.
But Oregon's exchange is still fixing an array of glitches that make data on the site untrustworthy, much like other states are doing. Initially coveroregon.com will be for browsing only, and may not be fully operational until November, officials say. Individuals and small businesses were supposed to be able to immediately use certified agents or application "assisters" to enroll until the site is ready for the public, hopefully by the second half of October.
Agents, however, won't have full use of the site on Tuesday as was planned, they learned Monday. Instead, they'll be asked to not fully enroll anyone. The problem is the site is still not providing accurate information on whether enrollees qualify for government assistance such as tax credits or Healthy Kids. Until that is fixed, agents are being asked to enter and save client information, but not check on eligibility for assistance.
Rocky King, executive director of Cover Oregon said he hopes that the problem will be fixed by the coming weekend, but he doesn't want people being improperly denied help. "I will not go out with something until I am satisfied that this is correct," he said.
He said Cover Oregon's instruction to stop scheduling clients was intended as a suggestion to agents. Consumers can still shop for insurance through agents, but those agents won't yet have the ability to use the Cover Oregon website to qualify for tax credits and enroll.

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