Obamacare & security breaches. Perish the thought. CBS News reported:
Minnesota insurance broker Jim Koester was looking for information about assisting with Obamacare implementation; instead, what landed in his inbox last month was a document filled with the names, Social Security numbers and other pieces of personal information belonging to his fellow Minnesotans.
In one of the first breaches of the new Obamacare online marketplaces, an employee of the Minnesota marketplace, called MNsure, accidentally emailed Koester a document containing personally identifying information for more than 2,400 insurance agents, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. MNsure was able to quickly undo the damage because Koester cooperated with them, but the incident left him unnerved.
"The more I thought about it, the more troubled I was," Koester told the newspaper. "What if this had fallen into the wrong hands? It's scary. If this is happening now, how can clients of MNsure be confident their data is safe?" Article
Troubling. Even more troubling is this essay by Dr. Scott Gotleib and Michael Astrue
published in the Wall Street Journal on the same issue earlier this week:
President Obama is bracing Americans for inevitable problems as the Affordable Care Act rolls out this week, but what he calls "glitches" are hardly routine. Information technology is ObamaCare's Achilles' heel. The faulty IT will expose Americans to lost data, attempts to enroll online that fail and the risk of fraud.
There are two key technological flaws in ObamaCare. First is the "hub"—the software to link servers at the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service, Homeland Security and state agencies to verify the income and health-insurance status of enrollees and ensure that they are eligible for subsidies. The other flaw is the "portal"—the federally run IT platform that is supposed to let consumers compare health plans and select one that best suits their needs.
In planning ObamaCare's IT infrastructure, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) dawdled for more than a year under Administrator Donald Berwick until Marilyn Tavenner took over in December 2011. Even then the agency was slow to outsource key contracts and turned to what insiders say were not top-quality programmers. CMS did not sign a contract for a backstop system to process paper verifications and do paper verifications of online applications until July.
The Health and Human Services Department did not begin testing the chief pieces of this IT system until August. The testing found that states couldn't consistently link to the federal portal (a problem that persists in some states), and that the hub couldn't reliably verify if a person is eligible for a subsidy, or accurately calculate how much the applicant is eligible to receive. HHS prevented independent watchdogs, including its own inspector general, from examining the systems before they go live on Oct. 1. The result is a host of troublesome gaps and dangers.
The biggest risk involves data security. The Obama administration created unnecessary opportunities for fraud with the White House's pork-minded insistence on funding favored community groups to employ "navigators" to solicit applicants and help them input their personal information, such as income and Social Security numbers. The navigators were hastily hired and trained (they are still being hired) and were not given extensive background checks. The personal data for millions of people will be entrusted to these navigators—and to a computerized system that has been rushed into operation.
Another technological hurdle involves health-insurance subsidies. At least a half-dozen states, including Colorado and Oregon, have said that they won't offer full online enrollment through their exchanges because the federal hub that is supposed to link to help them determine the subsidies people are eligible for isn't working properly. A link to Medicaid agencies also isn't functioning. This link is necessary to ensure that someone applying for a subsidy under a health plan is not Medicaid-eligible under his state's rules.
If the hub can't verify this, the individual will get booted from the ObamaCare enrollment system and shifted to a call center for confirmation by an ObamaCare agent who is likely to be fielding a deluge of complaints. Some people will end up getting subsidies they weren't qualified for. Washington eventually will have to try to claw back the money. This will create a massive pay-and-chase challenge as people move in and out of the exchanges and get subsidies that many of them won't even know they didn't deserve....
The technology and privacy problems presented by ObamaCare aren't likely to be mere rough patches that can be easily smoothed over. The provision of health care is an inherently local endeavor, and it increasingly appears that so is applying for health insurance. ObamaCare is an attempt to federalize the entire system, but the IT backbone appears unable to support this political ambition.
In September, the Minnesota state health-insurance exchange inadvertently disclosed several thousand Social Security numbers before the exchange even opened for business. Once the entire, gargantuan system is fired up nationwide, data leaks are almost a certainty.
That's the thing about technology: Glitches happen. Usually they're annoyances. Now, more than ever, they're going to involve the government and your health.
Dr. Gottlieb is a physician and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the Republican appointee on the HHS Federal Health IT Policy Committee that works on electronic health record guidelines for doctors' offices but has nothing to do with the rollout of the ObamaCare exchanges. Mr. Astrue was the Commissioner of Social Security until earlier this year. Rest of essay
14 comments:
And now the petty tyrant has cut coverage of the MLB playoffs and NFL to our troops overseas.
Democrats with a lick of sense are very, very worried.
Martial law is just around the corner. Its time for the Governors to take control and destroy this destructive regime.
Despot Barry wants civil unrest.
“It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
I'm from the govmn't and I'm here to help.
What was it? Only a short 3-4 weeks ago Obama was hot to bomb Syria. Wake up America. There is a madman in the White House.
The OBAMA-Care hotline is 1-800-FUCKYO. THE NUMBER 1 has no number assigned to it so this is what it spells.
Check out MAD magazine Special Issue #523, War On Privacy. MAD's not CHEAP anymore @$5.99 plus tax. Available at Rite-Aide stores. $5.99 sounds so "New Yorkish."
President Barry Megalomaniac stomps his feet and threatens to hold his breath.
Charter guides received a message from the National Park Service this week informing them that they are not permitted to take clients fishing in Florida Bay until the feds get back to work. That means that more than 1,100 square miles of prime fishing is off limits between the southern tip of the mainland to the Keys until further notice.
The closing affects not only fishing guides, but anyone with a license to conduct business in the park, including tour operators and paddling guides — anyone with a Commercial Use Authorization permit, said Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades and Dry Tortugas national parks.
Get that. NO F'ING TOURS while Obama is having his temper tantrum. That dear friends is what you call leadership.
Congrats Democrats for your ongoing support of the official toddler in the White House.
INTERNS: When you wake up one morning in the future to realize that your privacy and freedoms are only a distant memory please be big enough to admit, at least to yourselves, that Donna Ladd and Monni Rott had lied to you all along.
“This is a government computer system and is the property of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” it states. “It is for authorized use only regardless of time of day, location or method of access. “
“Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy,” the disclaimer reads. “Any or all uses of this system and all files on the system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized state government and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”
Such information includes Social Security numbers. When calling kynect to enroll in the marketplace a person is told to have their Social Security card, immigration status, pay stubs, alimony payments, student loan information, and current health insurance information at the ready.
The one thing I'll say about your generation Interns. You are ignorant dumbshits. Maybe the most stupid generation in the history of this country.
[And] Ladies, don't mind the government inspectors monitoring your gynecological exam at the other end of that IP camera. They only have your best interests in mind and Uncle Barry wants to guarantee that you receive the health care that you "deserve".
NOW, while the soothing water continues to heat up just sit back, relax, enjoy and leave the all the decisions to your navigator. Enjoy your "healthcare"!
Do y'all really believe that a President, any President decides what is or isn't an " essential" service or job?
And, do none of you get that this shut down is on top of the cuts as a result of sequestration?
What is happening is that a small group in the House of Representativves want to our federal government to fail. They want to completely dismantle it and be in control ( as they don't believe the People should decide)of how it is restructured.
Cruz et al absolutely understand that economic collapse and even civil war are possible consequences but they believe they can prevail in either scenario.
Good Morning Obama cultists. Are you ready for your screwing?
Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.
Yet, like many other Bay Area residents who pay for their own medical insurance, they were floored last week when they opened their bills: Their policies were being replaced with pricier plans that conform to all the requirements of the new health care law.
Vinson, of San Jose, will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura, of Portola Valley, will cough up almost $10,000 more for insurance for his family of four.
.....
"I was laughing at Boehner -- until the mail came today," Waschura said, referring to House Speaker John Boehner, who is leading the Republican charge to defund Obamacare.
"I really don't like the Republican tactics, but at least now I can understand why they are so pissed about this. When you take $10,000 out of my family's pocket each year, that's otherwise disposable income or retirement savings that will not be going into our local economy."
Smell the revolution Democrats? This Mother of all Fiascos is about to land squarely on your heads.
Un-FREAKING-Believable.
The PSYCHO in our White House attempts to stop free citizens and visitors to our country FROM VIEWING MT. RUSHMORE FROM THE DAMN ROAD.
ArgusLeader: Rushmore blockage stirs anger in S.D.
Blocking access to trails and programs at South Dakota’s most popular attraction was one thing, but state officials didn’t expect Congress’ budget stalemate to shut down a view of Mount Rushmore.
The National Park Service placed cones along highway viewing areas outside Mount Rushmore this week, barring visitors from pulling over and taking pictures of the famed monument.
Oh, how prescient Marshall Ramsey was this week!
Megalomania: a condition or mental illness that causes people to think that they have great or unlimited power or importance
The Donkeycrats OWN the meltdown that is coming. They can try to run and hide but it will be futile.
Right, dummy, instead of ordering the raid to pick up Al Libi, the President was ordering the park service to close a park road.
Read a history or civics book!
Bill, er, Barack wags the dog again.
Post a Comment