Audits and investigations into the effects of ObamaCare from congressional committees, government auditors, advocacy groups, and others.
The IRS began using an ObamaCare database before it had worked out all the security kinks, according to a new report from a federal watchdog.
The Treasury inspector general for tax administration found that the IRS had not completed all the necessary testing for the Coverage Data Repository (CDR) before the 2015 tax filing season started.
The Supreme Court recently approved the provision of subsidies to people who enroll on the federal healthcare exchange known as HealthCare.gov. But last Thursday, in testimony before the Senate Committee on Finance, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that the biggest threat to implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) remains government ineptitude.
The Internal Revenue Service paid out over $572 million in excess Obamacare tax credits and sent incorrect forms to over half a million individuals due to a computer programming error, according a new government report.
The report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration on Tuesday inspected the interim results of the IRS’s verification of Obamacare’s Premium Tax Credits, which were created to assist low or medium-income individuals and families to purchase health insurance in the marketplace.
Physician-owned hospitals are often vilified in America’s health care system, accused of siphoning the most profitable operations away from other hospitals while leaving them with the sicker and poorer patients. Congress has banned new ones from opening.
But an independent study released Wednesday argues physician-owned hospitals have gotten a bad rap.
Obamacare exchanges are failing to provide adequate enrollment information to the IRS for the payment and verification of tax credits, according to a new report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).
In order for the IRS to properly administer Obamacare, exchanges are required to provide monthly enrollment data, known as “Exchange Periodic Data.” As part of the law, Obamacare enrollees may elect to have their estimated tax credit sent directly to their insurance provider as partial payment for monthly premiums. But because this is only an estimate based on expected income, the IRS relies on Exchange Periodic Data to ensure that individuals have received the proper tax credit, or if they were eligible at all.
A federal government analysis that said Arizona’s health insurance co-op had gotten just a fraction of its projected enrollment last year missed thousands of signups and incorrectly showed the state not-for-profit set up under the Affordable Care Act signed up only 4% of the people it expected in 2014.
“CO-OP enrollment for the first-quarter of 2015 was 869,677 compared to 478,152 for the fourth-quarter of 2014,” said Kaminski. “This increase in enrollment on future financial performance is significant, because it demonstrates that interest is growing, along with a better understanding of how these CO-Ops operate. Additionally, for the smaller plans, the increase has allowed them to build up some scale, which is crucial for their viability going forward. However, the CO-Ops are challenged with operating efficiencies that are below par, having combined ratios as a group of over 110%. ”
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has substantially reformed the health insurance industry in the United States by establishing health insurance marketplaces, also called health exchanges, to facilitate the purchase of health insurance. The ACA has increased transparency in insurance pricing and in issuer pricing behavior. Using 2014 and 2015 Unified Rate Review (URR) data, this study examines changes in health insurance premiums made by individual health insurance issuers in 34 federally facilitated and state-partnership health insurance exchanges.
A new Avalere analysis finds that more than 2 million exchange enrollees eligible for cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) are not receiving the subsidies because they have selected a non-qualifying plan. In addition to the more publicized tax credits that lower consumers’ monthly premiums, exchange enrollees with incomes between 100 and 250 percent ($11,770 – $29,425) of the federal poverty level are eligible for CSRs. Exchange consumers must enroll in a plan on the silver metal level to access CSRs.
Louisiana Health Cooperative was among the 24 not-for-profit companies nationally to accept loans from the federal government to provide insurance coverage called for in the Affordable Care Act. The Metairie-based business was formed in 2011, secured $56 million in federal loans and sold plans in 2014 and 2015.