More than 12,600 Pennsylvanians are at risk of losing their federal exchange health insurance this September if they do not resolve inconsistencies in their enrollment information, according to the Pennsylvania Health Access Network.
In May, more than 970,000 people were identified by the Department of Health and Human Services as missing information or having contradictory information about their citizenship or immigration status in their data.
Antoinette Kraus, director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, says the issues could be something as small as a misspelled name or a typo in a social security number, but if the problems go unsolved, the consequences could be bad. If inconsistencies are not resolved by Sept. 5, health insurance will be canceled for those individuals by the end of the month.
Kraus explained that most of the problems are solved by uploading documentation to the healthcare.gov site, such as “an ID, your citizenship card, anything that verifies your identity.”
So far, 450,000 cases have been resolved across the U.S. and 210,000 are in progress. This success is most likely due to a rigorous and multi-level group to reach consumers with enrollment issues by phone, email, letters, and local community groups, such as Pittsburgh’s Consumer Health Coalition.
Notices have been sent out in Spanish and English, but more than 310,000 consumer accounts are still awaiting action by the individual. Anyone concerned for the status of their account can log in to healthcare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596.
