Update: Health Insurance Marketplace Glitches & Scams
Tuesday was a big day in health care. As you know, the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace opened. And, today, we’d like to give you two brief updates.
First, due to the high volume of requests, many of the websites have been slow and some have also experienced glitches. Please encourage your patients to be patient and to try visiting the site again later.
Second, as with any new, large-scale public venture, there are opportunists already out there trying to scam patients. The Better Business Bureau is on “high alert” for Health Insurance Marketplace-related scams. One scam that the BBB is seeing is individuals calling consumers telling them that they are from the US Government and that they need to confirm their personal information so that they can send out their new health insurance cards. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD INDIVIDUALS PROVIDE THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION OVER THE PHONE. The US Government verifies this with a post on their site, warning patients of such scams, too. The US Government will only contact individuals via US Mail documents. They will not be contacting individuals via phone or e-mail. And, the US Government says, “No one should threaten you with legal action if you do not sign up for a plan.”
The number to report Marketplace consumer fraud is: 1-800-318-2596.
