GAO Statement Highlights Deficiencies in Federal Exchange Enrollment Process

On July 16, 2015, the Government Accountability Office issued a written statement entitled “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Observations of 18 Undercover Tests of Enrollment Controls for Health-Care Coverage and Consumer Subsidies Provided under the Act.” This statement contained the findings of “undercover testing of the [Exchange] application, enrollment, and eligibility verification controls using 18 fictitious identities” that GAO submitted or attempted to submit through the Exchange in several states in a variety of ways.

Testing began in January 2014 before the …

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U.S. GAO Study Analyzes Market Share Among Health Care Enrollees

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires the GAO to study competition and market concentration in the health insurance market. This study examined the individual, small group, and large group health insurance markets prior to the implementation of key PPACA provisions that went into effect in 2014 and that could have an effect on competition and market concentration among health insurers.

The study found that while several insurers participated in each state’s individual, small group, and large group health insurance markets in 2013, …

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