A software malfunction caused more than 800,000 HealthCare.gov enrollees to receive incorrect information on tax forms intended to help them determine if the subsidies they collected were too large or too small, an administration official said Thursday.
“There was an unfavorable interaction between two pieces of software codes that ended up taking the 2014 benchmark plan price and inserting the 2015 benchmark price,” HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Health Care, Benefits and Administrative Rules.
Corrected forms will be sent out on starting March 2, he said. The hearing took place two days after H&R Block published an analysis suggesting that more than half of people who signed up for health coverage through an exchange will have to repay a portion of their premium subsidy.
It was unclear whether H&R Block's findings were affected by the glitch.
Counihan also said that it's possible that many of the nearly 2 million people who were automatically re-enrolled in plans in the federal marketplace may be getting the wrong amount of tax subsidies this year if they had a change in income from 2014 and did not update their financial information outlined in their exchange accounts.
HHS did attempt last summer to inform people about the importance of updating their profiles in the event of a change in finances. Counihan did not say whether there have been more recent outreach efforts.
Follow Virgil Dickson on Twitter:@MHvdickson
