Oregon Gov. Releases Subpoenas Probing Failed Exchange
Grand jury subpoenas issued by federal investigators last week and released Tuesday by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber demand all records, including email correspondence related to the application or receipt of federal funds for building the state's failed website. Meanwhile, the board that oversees Maryland troubled exchange was found to violate state laws requiring such groups to explain their reasons for meeting behind closed doors.
The New York Times: Prosecutors Investigating Grants For Health Site In Oregon
Unworkable technology pushed Oregon’s health care exchange to the brink, making it the first state to abandon its self-administered system in favor of the federal exchange. But now prosecutors are following the money. Grand jury subpoenas, issued last week by the United States attorney’s office in Portland and released on Tuesday by Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon, have demanded all records, including email correspondence and memos related to the application or receipt of federal funds that might have been used in developing, building or administering the state’s website (Johnson, 5/21).
Los Angeles Times: U.S. Prosecutors Investigate Oregon’s Failed Health Insurance Exchange
Federal prosecutors and FBI agents requested an expansive list of documents from the Oregon Health Authority, a state agency, and Oregon’s state health insurance exchange, known as Cover Oregon. The investigation appears to be focused on the representations that Cover Oregon made about the status and functionality of its website to officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, the federal agency that parceled out the money to states to build exchanges under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (Reston, 5/21).
Health News Colorado: Exchange Board Members Skeptical Of Multi-Million Dollar Wish List
Colorado’s health exchange managers want to spend about $20 million on additional computer technology and $13.6 million on their Colorado Springs call center in the next fiscal year. The new IT expenses include nearly $6 million for a streamlined sign-in system to make it easier for customers to figure out quickly if they qualify for Medicaid or tax credits. Colorado officials were supposed to have built that system last year, but a lack of time and sparring between exchange and Medicaid managers prevented them from doing so. This year, managers for both agencies say they are on track to build the new system, but the timeline is very tight, with little time to spare before the next open enrollment season begins in the fall (McCrimmon, 5/22).
The Oregonian: Long After Announced 'Resignation,' Ex-Cover Oregon Director Bruce Goldberg Draws $14,425 Monthly Salary
He was the highest profile casualty of Oregon's health insurance exchange disaster. Bruce Goldberg, the respected, long-time director of the Oregon Health Authority, offered to resign on March 18. Two days later, with the Cover Oregon tech mess going from bad to worse, Gov. John Kitzhaber announced that he'd shown Goldberg the door. The resignation was "effective immediately," said officials in the governor's office (Budnick, 5/21).
The Washington Post: Md. Health Insurance Exchange Board Violated Open Meetings Law, Compliance Panel Says
The board that oversees Maryland’s troubled health insurance marketplace repeatedly violated a state law that requires such groups to fully explain their reasons for meeting behind closed doors, the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board concluded this week. The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange Board of Trustees failed to fully disclose and document its reasons for confidentiality, the compliance board wrote in an opinion released Tuesday (Johnson, 5/21).
The Washington Post: Nevada Officials Will Dump Health-Care Vendor And Join The Federal Exchange
HHS will pay costs associated with transferring Nevada’s health exchange to the federal exchange. But the move will still cost Nevada millions of dollars as it merges the state’s Medicaid system with the federal government. The state estimates those costs could be as much as $20 million, though Nevada will only be responsible for 10 percent of total costs. The board also voted to issue a request for proposals for a more permanent replacement, one that could come from another state with better software (Wilson and Hicks, 5/21).
The Washington Post’s Wonkblog: It’s Crunch Time For Obamacare’s Broken Exchanges
The states that tried and failed to run their own Obamacare health insurance marketplaces aren't quite ready to call it quits. With the health-care law's next open enrollment period just more than six months away, Nevada on Tuesday joined the ranks of Maryland, Oregon and Massachusetts as states that have ditched their faulty enrollment Web sites. Of the 14 states — plus the District — that chose to run their own Obamacare exchanges in 2014, these four have either decided to join HealthCare.gov or do enrollment through another system in 2015 (Millman, 5/21).
CBS News: Attention Shifts To Troubled Obamacare State-Based Exchanges
As the federal Obamacare website and insurance exchange find their sea legs after a troubled debut last October, the political attention has shifted to states that opted to set up their own exchanges rather than participating in the federal program. And in some cases, the state of affairs isn't pretty (Miller, 5/21).