CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Andy Slavitt says work completing the back end of HeathCare.gov will continue into next year.
Slavitt told a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee that the website is being advanced gradually but won’t be fully integrated into the agency’s system until sometime next year.
Earlier in the same hearing Slavitt admitted that "there will clearly be bumps" when Healthcare.gov users attempt to enroll this fall.
Transcript of the exchange is available below:
REP. MICHAEL BURGESS: When this thing went live the back end part of the system was not built. Is it now built, available and ready to use? The part that pays providers?
ANDY SLAVITT: The part that pays the issuers, the issuers are getting paid today.
BURGESS: How about the doctors and hospitals?
SLAVITT: The doctors and hospitals get paid by the health plans not by the marketplace.
BURGESS: So the back end part of the system is up and fully functional?
SLAVITT: No. No No. The back end part of the system is going through continuous releases. Today we are paying the issuers at an estimated basis that would be a coming release this year where by the end of this year they'll begin to get paid at a policy level basis and next year continued automation will occur to tie everything to do with the back end of CMS' systems.