The health insurance exchanges mandated by Obamacare will likely get off to a rocky start at the beginning of October, a health care consultant told Congress Tuesday morning at a hearing on the law’s implementation.
Additionally, none of the contractors hired by the federal government to develop the exchanges’ new infrastructure told Congress that they have finished their work, even though the exchanges will open in three weeks.
The consultants, contractors, and business representatives testified before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for the latest in a series of oversight hearings on the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare.
"Very few states will have a comprehensive working exchange on Oct. 1," said Brett Graham, a partner with the healthcare consulting group Leavitt Partners. "It is also expected that exchanges will experience a problematic enrollment period as states and the federal government work to overcome both known and unknown challenges."
Representatives from several contractors that are building key parts of the law’s infrastructure, including the data hub that will transmit information from federal agencies to the exchanges, told the committee that they will be ready for the exchanges to open on Oct. 1. However, they did not testify that they have completed their work now.
For example, the contractor that is developing the coding for the data hub, QSSI, told the committee that while they have completed the software coding, they are "continuing performance and integration testing" right now.
Congressmen have raised concerns over the security of the data hub after several reports showed that testing for the hub was behind schedule. Three congressional leaders last month called for the administration to delay the individual mandate over security concerns.
QSSI executive vice president Michael Finkel said that recent testing has not revealed any security problems, although tests are continuing.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia agreed to set up their own exchanges, leaving the federal government to step in for the other 34 states.
"Today where we stand, there is not a single state that is completely ready for open enrollment," Graham testified.
The committee held the hearing with the contractors because the administration has not provided adequate information, subcommittee vice chairman Michael Burgess (R., Texas) said after the hearing.
"This is a difficult thing with the administration: They won’t come forward to talk to us about any of the problems they’re having," Burgess said. "If you really want to be sure you get this right, you ought to come talk to us where you’re having difficulties. If you need a legislative fix, let’s talk about it, but for heaven’s sake we haven’t even had those discussions."
Those difficulties have been cropping up repeatedly, Burgess said. At least two states, Oregon and California, have delayed the full opening of their exchanges.
The congressmen also sparred over the full committee’s investigation into how the "navigators," whom the administration and states are hiring to help people sign up for insurance, are using federal money. The committee sent a letter to many navigator groups asking how they plan to use the money.
Democrats decried the investigation, calling it "despicable" and "a fishing expedition that will surely come up empty handed" and saying it is only intended to hurt the navigators’ ability to help people. Republicans said it was a legitimate use of the committee’s oversight responsibility.