The head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) refused today to provide data on federal exchange plan enrollment activity until mid-November.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today at a House hearing on Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) public exchange program implementation that the department has no good enrollment data.
“The system isn’t functioning, so we’re not getting that data,” Sebelius told Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., at the hearing, which was organized by the House Energy & Commerce Committee.
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Terry and Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said they had heard reports that many of the insurers participating in the federal health insurance exchanges run by HHS do have application and enrollment data.
Terry and Burgess asked Sebelius to give insurers permission to release their own exchange data. Sebelius said that getting reliable data is a priority, but that HHS cannot allow the release of enrollment data until the data is reliable.
“I don’t want to turn over anything that’s not confirmed and reliable,” Sebelius said.