Spurned Healthcare.gov users will be flooded with “check us out” emails this week, reports Modern Healthcare, which says more than 270,000 applicants who tried and failed to use the health plan gateway will be encouraged to give it another go. CMS has had techs trying to work out some of the kinks that made the rollout a disaster for both pro- and anti-healthcare reformers.
While Modern Healthcare cites changes, such as allowing users to upload documents and remedying a rounding error as among the fixes CMS has made to the site, the Washington Post reports that the bulk of needed fixes won’t be completed by the end of the month. Running past Nov. 30 would mean missing the fix deadline the White House promised. Handling traffic is among the issues left to tackle: a source tells the WaPo that the site chokes when more than 20,000 to 30,000 users try to use it, a problem since that number is less than half of the anticipated capacity.
WaPo says that the technicians’ success rate is hovering at around six out of every 10 defects. The paper reports that the wave of “welcome back” emails are being staggered to keep user traffic from overwhelming the site.
