The error rate for HealthCare.gov transmitting consumer information to insurers has fallen to less than 1 percent since the beginning of this month, according to a blog post written by CMS Director of Communications Julie Bataille.
Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 5, the number of consumers for whom 834s — the documents used to transmit people's choice of insurance coverage and personal information — were not produced was fewer than 15,000, Ms. Bataille wrote. The number for whom 834 forms weren't produced as a percentage of total federal exchange site enrollees fell from 15.02 percent from Oct. 13 to Oct. 26 to 0.38 percent from Nov. 24 to Dec. 5.
Last week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the House Energy and Commerce Committee her agency is manually remedying errors the site made in sending enrollee information to insurers. Her testimony followed a report earlier this month from The Washington Post stating approximately one-third of the people who have enrolled in health plans through the federal exchange site since Oct. 1 have been affected by errors such as failure to notify insurers about new customers, duplicate enrollments or cancelation notices for the same individual, mistakes concerning federal subsidies and incorrect information about family members.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney responded by saying that figure doesn't reflect current circumstances, and federal officials have made "huge improvements" to the 834 forms. However, later that week, CMS acknowledged the issues and said it is working with insurance industry members to resolve them.
CMS continues to work with health insurers to verify 834 information, and every issuer's health plan in the federal marketplace has CMS files for individuals who enrolled or tried to enroll through early December, according to Ms. Bataille.
Since its launch last month, the federal exchange website has experienced numerous technical issues. However, federal have made "substantial progress" in repairing HealthCare.gov, which can now support 50,000 users at a time, according to an HHS progress report.
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