Lawmakers complain about exchange appeals

Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have written to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to complain about reports of problems with the federal exchange appeals system.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is supposed to give users of the new federal and HHS-run health insurance exchanges the right to appeal denials of access to premium tax credits.

Users also are supposed to be able to appeal denials of applications for help with covering out-of-pocket costs.

Exchanges are supposed to notify users of benefit denials, and users are supposed to be able to file appeals through the exchange website.

House Energy leaders told HHS they were disturbed by a Washington Post article suggesting that tens of thousands of people may be stuck in the plan application pipeline because HHS has failed to tell them about application problems or benefits denials.