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27,000
You know they are in big trouble when they come in at half of my estimates! The audacity of this administration to continue telling people to keep going back to the website and the call center when they knew full well that only 25 people per day per state were making it thorough the gauntlet that is Healthcare.gov is startling. This program is in grave danger of collapsing if the administration (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - November 13, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

The Obamacare Rollout: The Administration Needs a Plan B––Now!
It is now becoming clear that the Obama administration will not have Health.care.gov fixed by December 1 so hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions, of people will be able to smoothly enroll by January 1. Why do I say that? Look at this from the administration spokesperson's daily Healthcare.gov progress report on Friday: Essentially what is happening is people [those working on the fixes] (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - November 10, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

The Obamacare Rollout––Week Five
Enrollments continue to trickle in. Health plans, with the kind of market share that would have to sign-up 100,000 to 200,000 people for the administration to hit its goal of 7 million people, are generally reporting they have enrolled only about 100 - 200 people over the first 35 days via Healthcare.gov. Does this mean no one wants to sign-up? No. People can argue about whether we will see the (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - November 5, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

"Substandard Plans" Offered by "Bad Apple Insurers"––Does the Obama Administration Understand How the Health Insurance Market Works?
Yesterday, the President said in Boston that the millions of people who are getting cancellation letters ending their coverage in the individual health insurance market are being saved from "substandard plans" that were sold to them by "bad apple insurers." I guess these would be the same insurers his staff invited to the White House last week. In their statement following that meeting, the (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 31, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

Mr. President: I like My Health Insurance and I Would Really Like to Keep It––Can You Help Me Out Here?
How many times have I talked on this Blog about rate shock, the millions of people who would be getting cancellation letters from their current health plan, and the problem of people having to put up with more narrow networks? And, how many times have those predictions been met by push back and spin: Today's policies are just junk and people will be better off finding lower cost health insurance (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 29, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

The Commitment to Fix Obamacare's Computer Systems By December 1––Because It Can Be Done By Then or Because It Has To Be Done By Then?
The good news is that it appears the adults are finally in charge of healthcare.gov. This week, the administration put a seasoned and trusted manager in charge of getting the Obamacare computer system working––Jeff Zients. He quickly announced a methodical approach to the problem and that he had appointed one contractor to coordinate the daily work. Zients also appeared to be pretty open and (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 26, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

Just What Is an 834 Transaction? Why Is It Holding Up Obamacare? How Long Will This Take to Fix?
You have probably already heard that Obamacare has as many backroom problems as problems with the front end consumer web enrollment portal. Insurance companies participating in the new health insurance exchanges are receiving detailed enrollment information for each of the very few people who have successfully enrolled through the 36 federally run health insurance exchanges. But the problem is (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 24, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

"Healthcare.gov is in de facto shutdown"
Read my conversation with Ezra Klein today on the Washington Post WONKBLOG (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 23, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

The Obamacare Federal Health Insurance Exchanges––Week Three Status Report
I will be happy to have the Obama Administration do these status reports anytime they would like to takeover from me. If I were in the White House spinning, I could report to you that enrollment in states run by the federal exchanges jumped 50% in the last few days. Health plans that might have told me last week that they had enrolled 400 people since October 1 are now telling me they had a " (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 22, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

For Those of You Who Yesterday Didn't Believe My Federal Exchange Enrollment Estimates and Reports of Backroom Problems...
You need to see today's Wall Street Journal front-page story, "Health Website Woes Widen as Insurers Get Wrong Data." Here's an excerpt: After realizing that some applications listed up to three spouses in a single family, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska, which has about 50 health-law enrollees, had to "stop those enrollments from going through the automated process," said Matt Leonard, (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 18, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

Should the Administration Shut the Obamacare Computer System Down? That Depends Upon What's Going On Behind the Curtain
(Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 18, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

Week Two of the Obamacare Federal Health Insurance Exchange Rollout––No Improvement
There was no progress for the new federal health insurance exchange's information technology and enrollment challenges in its second week. At the end of week two of the Obamacare launch, health plans were generally seeing no more enrollments per day then they saw in the first week. As troubling, the backroom issues plaguing the connection between health insurers and the federal government had (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 17, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

"Obamacare is a bit like the astronaut on top of the rocket"
Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein and I spoke about the Obamacare rollout yesterday afternoon. Here is his column from today's Washington Post: ‘Obamacare is a bit like the astronaut on top of the rocket’ By Ezra Klein, Published: October 15 at 12:38 pm Ezra Klein: You wrote about how the problems on the back-end of the insurance portals, in the way they communicate with the systems of (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 15, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

How Many People Have Signed Up For Health Insurance on the Federal Health Insurance Exchanges?
Based upon my survey of a large number of health plans accounting for substantial market share in the 36 states the federal insurance exchange is operating in, not more than about 5,000 individuals and families signed-up for health insurance in the 36 states run by the Obama administration through Monday. It is not uncommon for a major health insurer with a large market share to report less than (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 11, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs

What Health Insurance Company Information Technology Executives Were Saying About the Obamacare Exchanges Last February
Were there signs the Obama administration was headed for trouble getting the insurance exchanges ready for October 1, 2014? Last March, I did a post reviewing a survey of health insurance industry information technology executives' opinions on how well the Obama administration was doing toward launching the exchanges. The federal health insurance exchange problems that have so far been obvious (Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review)
Source: Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review - October 7, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Authors: ROBERT LASZEWSKI Source Type: blogs