The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants to help managers of troubled insurance exchange programs pretend that the weeks of technical glitches were a bad dream.
Officials at the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight talks about an exchange enrollment do-over option in a bulletin sent to exchange managers.
Open enrollment closes March 31.
CCIIO has had problems getting HealthCare.gov, to work properly, and many states have had problems with their own enrollment sites.
If consumers were unable to enroll in qualified health plans – private exchange plans – through an exchange because of technical problems, HHS might regard that as an “exceptional circumstance,” CCIIO officials write in the bulletin.
HHS wants to let exchange managers provide retroactive coverage for consumers affected by the exceptional circumstances, CCIIO officials say.
If a consumer applied for plan coverage through an exchange and ended up with none at all, or with non-exchange plan coverage and no PPACA advance premium tax credit subsidy payments, an exchange could let the consumer enroll in subsidized plan coverage after the consumer got through the complete application process, officials say.