… spotted problems with Colorado’s Obamacare health exchange.
The Inspector General’s audit report doesn’t look good. The IG’s job: to see how well Obamacare “ensured the accuracy of information submitted by applicants for enrollment in qualified health plans and for advance payment of premium tax credits and cost sharing reductions.” Unverified information creates “inconsistencies.”
Colorado gets four mentions. The quotes:
- The Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, and Nevada marketplaces did not provide data on inconsistencies.
- Colorado reported that it relied on the Medicaid office to verify all applicant information through the first calendar quarter of 2014. As of March, the Colorado marketplace reported that it had assumed responsibility for resolving the inconsistencies.
- Four State marketplaces could not provide data on inconsistencies (Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and Oregon).
- Colorado and Minnesota reported that they rely on their State Medicaid offices to resolve inconsistencies and that they had limited access to State Medicaid data. [My boldings]
So.
Did Colorado insurance applications have eligibility-denying inconsistencies? Is that why nobody provided HHS with data about them? (Hide your mess under the bed so nobody sees it.)
Any verification failures aren’t chargeable to the glorious Connect for Health Colorado health exchange. Goodness no. (If mom discovers the mess under the bed, blame your sibling.) The exchange points the finger at Colorado’s Medicaid operation, saying they “relied” on them and only had “limited access” to the raw data. (They shoulda done it themselves, right?)
Consider the Medicaid data specialists – the people who the Colorado exchange hung out to dry. Colorado has added more Medicaid beneficiaries, proportionately, than almost any other state. These data mavens, bless them, have a tough job. They must track hundreds of thousands of new Medicaid enrollees, as directed by Governor Hickenlooper we assume.
If the feds can’t give Colorado a clean report, do we add this to the list of Hickenlooper’s flubs?
When given data by other states, the IG found verification rules weren’t followed. Which means failure to verify citizenship or residency or income, among other requirements.
We know that Colorado did not provide data on inconsistencies. We can’t prove Colorado is currently insuring ineligible persons. Nor that they gave out bogus subsidies. But failure to provide data to the Office of Inspector General is damning.
Hickenlooper must hope he’ll get past the election before the facts appear.