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October 29, 2013 at 11:09 AM
House Republicans are still trying to get the Obama administration to release information about how the HealthCare.gov federal exchange enrollment site is doing.
Questions about site activity came up several times today during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange program implementation.
Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), was the only witness.
Managers of most state-based PPACA public exchanges have released reports on the number of visitors to enrollment sites, the number of applications started or completed, the number of applications processed, and, in some cases, the number of consumers who have actually enrolled in coverage through the sites.
CMS, the arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) overseeing the exchanges run by HHS, has released no clear information about HealthCare.gov since the enrollment system opened to the public Oct. 1.
“We will release our metrics in mid-November,” Tavenner said.
Rep. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa., asked Tavenner who in the administration had decided to wait until mid-November to release site data.
“This was a group decision,” Tavenner said. Tavenner declined to name other people involved in that decision. She said the group included members of the White House budget office and domestic policy staff.
Tavenner said CMS now believes it can have HealthCare.gov working smoothly most of the time by the end of November.
One lawmaker, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., read a list of answers Tavenner had given assuring lawmakers at earlier hearings that HealthCare.gov work was on track.
