By Jonathan Easley, February 10, 2014, 06:26 pm

HealthCare.gov will be out of service for two and a half days beginning on Feb. 15 — the last day people can sign up to obtain coverage that begins on March 1.

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services announced in a blog post on Monday that the ObamaCare website would be lacking some enrollment functionalities so the Social Security Administration can conduct its annual systems maintenance activities.

The site will be out of order from 3 p.m. on Feb. 15 until 5 a.m. on Tuesday — a period that coincides with the long holiday weekend.

Those seeking coverage by March 1 must have signed up online by Feb. 15, but with the website maintenance, those registering at the last minute won’t be able to find out what plans or subsidies they qualify for.

By Julie Appleby, KHN Staff Writer, Feb 10, 2014

The lure used to get uninsured Americans to sign up for health law coverage was the promise of generous premium subsidies. But the promise comes with a catch for almost 3 million people earning between three and four times the federal poverty rate: They may have to pay up to 9.5 percent of their income toward that premium before the subsidy kicks in.

That could take a substantial bite from their budgets — potentially as much as $600 a month for mid-priced plan for a family of three earning between $58,590 and $78,120.

Feb. 10, 2014 at 6:00 PM

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (UPI) — The employer mandate under the U.S. healthcare reform law has been delayed until 2016 for smaller companies, the federal government said Monday.

It’s the second time the deadline for businesses to either offer their workers health insurance or pay a penalty has been pushed back. This time it affects businesses with between 50 and 99 employees, the Hill reported.

Jon Elswick, File/Associated Press – Published: February 10

WASHINGTON — Angling to avoid political peril, the Obama administration Monday granted employers another delay in a heavily criticized requirement that medium-to-larger firms cover their workers or face fines.

In one of several concessions in a complex Treasury Department regulation of more than 200 pages, the administration said companies with 50 to 99 employees will have an additional year to comply with the coverage requirement, until January 1, 2016.

By Jerry Markon and Alice Crites, Published: February 9

Accenture, the contractor urgently tapped to help fix the federal health-insurance Web site, is a favorite of corporate America but has a record that includes troubled projects and allegations of ethical lapses, a review of the consulting giant’s history shows.

At the University of Michigan, students and faculty members are protesting the school’s use of Accenture to help cut costs, citing a report by a committee of alumni and graduate students that said the firm has “a disturbing pattern of problematic past performance.” In North Carolina, glitches in an Accenture-configured computer system contributed to massive backlogs for food-stamp recipients, leading the Obama administration last month to threaten to withdraw the state’s food-stamp funding.

By Anna Prior, Updated Feb. 9, 2014 4:58 p.m. ET

They’re simple. They can save a bundle of money. But lots of people just don’t use them.

People’s financial lives are filled with potential low-effort strategies that can add up to huge savings over time. They can max out their benefits at work or take deductions for college-savings plans or spend a few minutes clicking around to find better rates on insurance once a year.

Yet, all too often, inertia kicks in. Think of it as the fiscal version of not going to the gym every day. People think they don’t have time to squeeze in one more activity, even though it won’t take that much time and they’ll be all the better for it. (Or sometimes, it never crosses their mind.)

Bruce Japsen, 2/08/2014 @ 10:03AM

Though some health insurers say they may lose money in the first year offering benefits under the Affordable Care Act, the biggest health plans remain committed to the program with at least one saying this week it will be part of an “unprecedented” amount of business to the industry.

A parade of fourth-quarter earnings from insurers including Aetna (AET), Cigna (CI) and Humana (HUM) this week is the latest indication health insurance companies are going to be able to manage the first year of risk from newly insured customers buying subsidized private health plans via government-run exchanges. Under the law, millions of Americans can get a subsidy of up to $5,000 to purchase an array of health plan choices.

Sarah Hurtubise, 12:52 AM 02/08/2014

The Obama administration’s admission that it may extend the exemption for health insurance plans canceled due to Obamacare regulations could signal an end to the war on “junk plans.”

Conservative estimates from the Associated Press put the total of canceled plans at 4.7 million; in contrast, Obamacare exchanges across the country can only claim that 3 million Americans have selected private plans via online exchanges (actual enrollment could reportedly be even lower).

By Elise Viebeck, February 08, 2014, 11:51 am

Health insurers are arming themselves for an aggressive campaign to beat back cuts to Medicare Advantage.

Insurers are hoping that their seven-figure lobbying and advertising effort, coupled with pressure from key business interests, will convince the administration to abandon the cuts that officials are expected to announce on Feb. 21.

“Seniors cannot afford another round of rate cuts to their Medicare Advantage coverage,” said America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) President Karen Ignagni in a statement this week. “[Medicare] should protect seniors in the program by maintaining current payment levels next year.”

Feb 07, 2014

The “spectacular failure” of health insurance exchanges in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland and Oregon — despite their support of the health law — gets a closer look from ProPublica. Repair efforts in Maryland and Oregon are also covered.

ProPublica: Epic Fail: Where Four State Health Exchanges Went Wrong
Much has been written (and will continue to be written) about the spectacular failure of health insurance exchanges in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Oregon and Maryland—all blue states that support the Affordable Care Act. All were woefully unprepared for their Oct. 1 launch, and unlike HealthCare.gov, the federal marketplace, they are still having trouble getting back on their feet. … One common element emerging in the coverage of these exchanges is that at least some state employees knew they were heading for disaster but didn’t take action early enough to remedy it (Ornstein, 2/6).