HIPAA Be Damned … Obamacare’s HealthCare.gov Users Warn of Security Risk, Breach of Privacy

What else could this disastrous web site possibly do wrong?

Obamacare’s Healthcare.gov website discloses eligibility letters written to other applicants. Hmm, thanks for the break of privacy of unsuspecting individuals who signed onto Healthcare.gov.  The security flaw disclosed eligibility letters addressed to individuals from another state. Just curious, was a data disclosure made to HHS in compliance with HIPAA privacy rules like many healthcare government contractors are supposed to do within a specified amount of time? Or do your own rules not apply to yourself?

As reported at The Weekly Standard, below is a screen shot of one of the “eligibility letters” he wasn’t supposed to receive.

From The Foundry:

Justin Hadley logged on to HealthCare.gov to evaluate his insurance options after his health plan was canceled. What he discovered was an apparent security flaw that disclosed eligibility letters addressed to individuals from another state.

“I was in complete shock,” said Hadley, who contacted Heritage after becoming alarmed at the breach of privacy.

Hadley, a North Carolina father, buys his insurance on the individual market. His insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, directed him to HealthCare.gov in a cancellation letter he received in September.

After multiple attempts to access the problem-plagued website, Hadley finally made it past the registration page Thursday. That’s when he was greeted with downloadable letters about eligibility — for two people in South Carolina.

The document shows that administration officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were concerned that a lack of testing posed a potentially “high” security risk for the HealthCare.gov website serving 36 states.

Security Risk

Last week, the Associated Press disclosed a government memo revealing the “high” security risk for HealthCare.gov. Those concerns surfaced at Wednesday’s hearing with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who claimed the system was secure.

HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters told the AP, “When consumers fill out their online … applications, they can trust that the information they’re providing is protected by stringent security standards and that the technology underlying the application process has been tested and is secure.”

However, that didn’t stop members of Congress from voicing alarm.

“You accepted a risk on behalf of every user … that put their personal financial information at risk,” Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI) told Sebelius. “Amazon would never do this. ProFlowers would never do this. Kayak would never do this. This is completely an unacceptable level of security.”

More Bad News … America’s Top Hospitals Opt Out of Obamacare & May Not Accept Policies

Now for something completely different. More bad news for Obamacare … Its the gift  law that was rammed down America’s throat along a partisan vote that keeps on giving.

Guess what America, not only may you not be able to keep your insurance if you like it, nor keep your doctor if you like them … now US News & World Report is reporting that because of Obamacare, you may not be able to keep your hospital if you like it as many of the top hospitals in the United States are opting out of Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation. Could this law be any more of a disaster? Let’s understand this, the entire health care system in the United States was blown up for 5 to 7 million uninsureds? It would have been cheaper just to have subsidized them.

The Obama Administration has been claiming that insurance companies will be competing for your dollars under the Affordable Care Act, but apparently they haven’t surveyed the nation’s top hospitals.

Americans who sign up for Obamacare will be getting a big surprise if they expect to access premium health care that may have been previously covered under their personal policies. Most of the top hospitals will accept insurance from just one or two companies operating under Obamacare.

[...]

Watchdog.org looked at the top 18 hospitals nationwide as ranked by U.S. News and World Report for 2013-2014. We contacted each hospital to determine their contracts and talked to several insurance companies, as well.

The result of our investigation: Many top hospitals are simply opting out of Obamacare.

Chances are the individual plan you purchased outside Obamacare would allow you to go to these facilities. For example, fourth-ranked Cleveland Clinic accepts dozens of insurance plans if you buy one on your own. But go through Obamacare and you have just one choice: Medical Mutual of Ohio.

The NRO makes a couple of astute points that have left a bad taste in many American’s mouths. Had Barack Obama been upfront and truthful and not misrepresented the facts of Obamacare, there is no way that the Democrats could have been passed as “We the People” would have been outraged. Also, Obama has been able to deflect many scandals with the aid of the MSM, but the Obamacare debacle and the facts of the law may be Obama’s ‘Waterloo’.

Obamacare, even with massive Democratic supermajorities in Congress, would never have passed if Americans thought that they would be forced to give up their current plans.

The reason is simple. To begin with, Americans were overwhelmingly happy with the quality of their health care.

Obama might be able to weather many controversies — from IRS-gate to the NSA’s spying on Americans to the disastrous operation of the Obamacare website — by claiming he knew nothing about what was going on.  But his promise that people would be able to keep their insurance policies and doctors is hitting people on a much more personal level.

OMG, No Wonder the WH and Sebelius Do Not Want to Release the Numbers … Only 6 Individuals Signed Up for Obamacare on Its First Day

Words cannot even describe the disaster that this truly is … Talk about a failure to launch.

CMS Marilyn Tavenner would not disclose any figures when Rep. Dave Camp. HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius also would not provide a number to the committee stating that she did not have verifiable numbers. So much for transparency.  Now we know why.  The House Oversight Committee release documents that showed 6, yes let me repeat that, 6 individuals signed up for Obamacare on its first day.  And by the days end of Wednesday, the notes showed that there were only “248 enrollments” nationwide.

It is almost impossible to conceive that only 6 individuals enrolled. However, the White House is providing no data. They claim they do not have the numbers and are unable to track them. Please, spare me the BS.  How difficult could it possibly be to get such data. Sorry, I am a healthcare data analyst consultant, it isn’t that hard. As a matter of fact I have in the past been specifically asked to provide such data as well as things that are quite more difficult to track than a simple enrollment number. One would think that they had reporting functionality within the website that cost between $400 and $600 million. Doug Ross is probably closer to the truth in saying, ” They lied to Congress to hide their catastrophic failures.” The comical part of this is that have to sign up about 7 million individuals to make this work. But it can’t be Medicaid heavy which much of the early data appears to be.

From CBS News:

For 31 days now, the Obama administration has been telling us that Americans by the millions are visiting the new health insurance website, despite all its problems.

But no one in the administration has been willing to tell us how many policies have been purchased, and this may be the reason: CBS News has learned enrollments got off to an incredibly slow start.

Early enrollment figures are contained in notes from twice-a-day “war room” meetings convened within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after the website failed on Oct. 1. They were turned over in response to a document request from the House Oversight Committee.

The website launched on a Tuesday. Publicly, the government said there were 4.7 million unique visits in the first 24 hours. But at a meeting Wednesday morning, the war room notes say “six enrollments have occurred so far.”

They were with BlueCross BlueShield North Carolina and Kansas City, CareSource and Healthcare Service Corporation.

By Wednesday afternoon, enrollments were up to “approximately 100.” By the end of Wednesday, the notes reflect “248 enrollments” nationwide.

Much more at Twitchy including Tweets from CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson who broke the story

UPDATE I: In a remarkable turn of events, SNL nailed it in predicting the exact number of people who successfully enrolled in Obamacare on the first day of it’s disastrous rollout. … “Millions of Americans of Americans are visiting Healthcare.gov … Unfortunately the site was only designed to handle six users at a time”

Best Moments from the HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius’ Testimony Before the House Oct 30, 2013 (VIDEO)

If you missed the House hearings yesterday on the Obamacare website debacle rollout with HHS. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the below VIDEO is some of the highlights. Some questioning was better than others and for the most part the Democrats decided not to care to represent the millions of people who have lost their insurance who are their constituents. Instead, they played partisan politics and seemed to defend Obamacare, the website and blame the GOP of hoping that the sky is falling. This from the folks who said that sequestration would be the end of the world.

• Sebelius actually said the site has not crashed.
• “Some people like to drink out of a red solo cup, not a crystal stem”
• “Hold me accountable for the debacle, I am responsible”
• “We’re not in Kansas anymore”
• “Would you recommend to the president that he stop using the term,  ‘If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan’”
• The problem with this whole debate, is you [Sebelius] won’t tell us who made the decisions”.
• Who made the decision on the 27 year old quote who is 50?”
• “We did not adequately do end-to-end testing”

What might have been one of the more eye-opening Q&A that should give all pause who entered their person data on Healthcare.gov was when it was asked,”Has each piece of that code that has been introduced into the system been security tested?” Sebelius’ ultimate answer was , “I don’t know”. WHAT? How could you not know and have made it go live? Sounds HIPAA compliant  to me, NOT!

I guess Obama will consider this another phony scandal.

Obamacare Web Site Crashed on HHS Sec. Sebelius During House Hearings on Obamacare as Sebelius Says Obama has Kept His Promise that “If You Like Your Healthcare Plan You Can Keep It” VIDEO

You just can’t make this stuff up … with the Obama administration, its keeping your promise even when you are obviously not.

Yesterday during the House hearings on Obamacare and the disastrous rollout of  the website Healthcare.gov, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was on the hot seat as she fielded questions from the failed rollout, to security issues, to who is to blame as to was the site even tested. However, Sebelius could not answer the most obvious questions as to whether President Barack Obama kept his promise to the American people when he said repeatedly, “If You Like Your Healthcare Plan You Can Keep It.”

During the House Hearings hearings on the Obamacare website, US Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) asked the question on everyone’s mind  to HHS Secretary Sebelius as to whether Barack Obama kept his promise to “We the People” or was he lying through his teeth?

Blackburn: Before, during and after the law was passed the president said if you like your healthcare plan you can keep it. So is he keeping his promise?

Sebelius: Yes he is.

YES? Um, what part of “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period! If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan, period!” doesn’t Sebelius quite get? Because the statement is so ambiguous, isn’t it? That would be sarcasm.

Video Hat Tip - The Gateway Pundit

In keeping with the farce and joke that is Obamacare and its unbelievable, disastrous incompetent rollout … as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the individual in charge of overseeing Obamacare and the implementation of the web site and health exchanges, was testifying before the House doing her best to spin and defend the indefensible … Healthcare.gov crashed during her testimony! As we say all the time, nothing is stranger than the truth and you just can’t make this stuff up.

Just minutes before Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was set to testify on Capitol Hill, the Healthcare.gov site crashed. Spot checks verified that the State of North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Maryland, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, and New Hampshire are all down – which likely means the entire federal site is down.

The site was still down thirty-minutes into Sebelius’ testimony.

UPDATE I: Kathleen Sebelius apologizes for Obamacare website fiasco while Obama defends law in Boston.

Go figure, Barack Obama was less contrite in his tone and instead of apologizing, he doubled down and defended it.

Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary, apologized to the nation for the botched launch of the Affordable Care Act in testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“In these early weeks, access to health care has been a miserably frustrating experience,” the former Kansas governor said.

“Let me say directly to these Americans: you deserve better,” Sebelius said. “I apologize.”

President Obama struck a less contrite tone in Boston as he defended the law by touting successes of the Massachusetts measure it was modeled on.