The fine-tuning of Obamacare continues.
This week, the Associated Press got hold of an internal administration document that indicates improvements will be forthcoming on Healthcare.gov, the official web portal into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
These “customer-friendly changes” are designed in particular to make it easier for the 10 million or so Americans who could have health coverage but don’t, to go get some, AP said.
While the changes should make the site navigation experience a better and more successful one for all users, the thinking is that the easier it is to find coverage, the more uninsured adults will sign up.
AP said the changes haven’t been integrated into the site yet because they’re still undergoing testing.
“If final testing doesn't uncover problems, the new e-commerce tools could take some of the uncertainty out of picking a health plan when sign-up season starts Nov. 1,” AP said.
Among the upgrades to the site’s popular window-shopping page:
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Better tools to enable consumers to determine if their preferred clinicians and current medications are covered by a plan they are reviewing;
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Better tools for comparing plans in general;
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A new feature that quickly offers an estimate of what the total cost of a plan will be for a consumer, based on cost-sharing as well as patient premium.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
