MNsure issuing refunds to overcharged consumers, website flaw blamed

Source: Pioneer Press, St.迷你倉 Paul, Minn.Jan. 15--MNsure officials are apologizing and issuing refunds to consumers who inadvertently paid multiple times for health insurance coverage because of a problem with the health exchange website.The issue apparently affects fewer than 500 families, and the website flaw was fixed last week, said Jenni-Bowring McDonough, a spokeswoman for the MNsure health insurance exchange.The problem involved a link that was supposed to connect consumers to a "payment completed" message on the MNsure website. At some point, the link stopped working as intended."Some consumers, not being successfully connected back to ... this additional 'payment completed' message, may have believed that payment had not been completed," Bowring-McDonough said in a written response to questions. "As a result, (some) re-initiated their payment."She said MNsure is at fault for the multiple payments.Minnesota launched the MNsure health exchange last year to implement the federal Affordable Care Act, which requires almost all Americans to obtain health coverage in 2014.Since its Oct. 1 launch, the MNsure website has suffered from numerous prob儲存倉ems that have prevented people from picking a health plan, and complicated the transfer of information about enrollees from MNsure to health insurance companies. But the exchange hasn't previously reported on problems involving consumers making payments for private health insurance coverage through MNsure.The Pioneer Press started asking questions about the multiple-payments scenario last week after learning of a consumer who has been affected.MNsure believes a total of 497 families made multiple payments. Some of those payments are considered legitimate, because some consumers made separate payments for different household members obtaining coverage, Bowring-McDonough said.All instances of multiple payments are being reviewed to see where refunds should be issued. "We expect to complete the refund process this week," Bowring-McDonough said, adding that about 28 have been issued so far.Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at 651-228-5479. Follow him at .twitter.com/chrissnowbeck.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Visit the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) at .twincities.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉最平