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HealthCare.gov to get overhaul

By Kathryn Mayer

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The administration is working to revamp, and even scrap, significant parts of HealthCare.gov to avoid similar problems that plagued the site’s launch last fall, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Officials met with carriers to talk about the website flaws and potential fixes, according to the report.

However, the newspaper reports that a tight deadline to get it done is of concern. The administration only has until mid-November to get the website fully functional. Otherwise, consumers might face similar problems as last fall.

See also: Agent group says they’re ignored by CMS on guidance

Open enrollment for 2015 begins Nov. 15.

“We’re all going to be nervous until Nov. 15,” Shaun Greene, chief operating officer of Utah-based Arches Health Plan, told the Journal. “There is no wiggle room. They’re on a very tight time frame.”

Front-end fixes to the site are essential to the consumer experience. Last fall, the site suffered from slow load times, inconvenient registration requirements and site crashes. 

See also: IT threatens exchange enrollment.

But also important — and trickier — are back-end fixes to the site, which include coordinating customer information and insurance payments. One essential fix, the system to automate payments to carriers, is already running behind schedule, according to the report.

Other changes to HealthCare.gov cited in the report include: replaced software and fixes to the application consumers use to sign up for coverage and the comparison tool for shoppers searching for plans. The administration will rely on cloud technology from Amazon for many of these functions, according to the report.