Health insurance companies and industry experts have said one in five people who signed up for coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act didn't make the first premium payment on time, meaning they didn't actually gain coverage last month, according to a report from The New York Times.
Blue Shield of California reported 80 percent of those who signed up for its exchange plans with coverage beginning in January made the first premium payment by the Jan. 15 deadline. Aetna, which set a Jan. 14 deadline, saw 70 percent of people pay their first premiums on time, according to the report. Meanwhile, Humana reported about 75 percent of people who signed up for coverage effective Jan. 1 paid by the health insurer's Jan. 31 deadline.
Federal regulations require PPACA enrollees to make an initial premium payment to complete the process of signing up for coverage. Originally, people enrolled in health plans set to take effect Jan. 1 were required to pay their first premiums by Dec. 23, 2013. However, in mid-December, federal officials pushed back the deadline to Dec. 31. Shortly afterward, America's Health Insurance Plans announced insurers selling policies through the exchanges had extended the deadline even further to Jan. 10. A number of insurers opted to push back that deadline even further.
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the Obama administration doesn't know how many of the nearly 3.3 million PPACA exchange enrollees have paid their premiums, due to the confidentiality of contracts between individual and insurance companies, according to a report from The Hill.
However, Mr. Carney said a "high percentage" of people have paid. Furthermore, he said the federal government is developing a payment processing system that would allow HealthCare.gov users to immediately pay their premiums, allowing the government to measure how many people complete the full sign-up process, according to the report.
More Articles on the PPACA:
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5 Key Statistics on PPACA Exchange Enrollment in January