Our ACA saga - next installment.....on identification verification, the chat function, and phone

[NRaleighLiberal]

About a month ago I wrote a post starting the story of helping our daughter sign up for health insurance - we are in NC, and as an opt-out state, wondered how this would end up for her; she works nearly full time, but nearly isn't close enough - her employer (grocery store) is dropping her health insurance.

Anyway - we went on to the website, started the application, and all was going well until it came time for her to verify her identity. She got a set of three questions, the third of which must have been part of her former boyfriend's credit report (they lived together for awhile, and it is surprising that questions that my daughter can't answer showed up as options!). So she failed the 3rd question, got another set of 3, and again - couldn't answer the 3rd because she had no knowledge (asked about a credit card that she wasn't aware of).

So we ended up on the line with a very pleasant and patient ACA rep, ended up calling Experion, ended up in a 3 way call - the upshot is that my daughter had to mail two pieces of ID (copy of her SS card and drivers license) to an address for the Marketplace in kentucky - they said it would be cleared up in 1-2 weeks.

So, one month later, I went in to the system and tried to help her through the process. Once again we ended up with a message that we can't continue due to lack of verification of her identity. So once again I ended up on the phone with a very pleasant and patient rep - and this time we were told the issue is being elevated to the Advanced Issues team - but we had to wait a week for them to call us back (that's the protocol) - if they don't, we call again and they can bump us up by phone to the Advanced Issue Resolution team.

My feelings so far - the chat function is pretty useless because you can't share any specific info - it is just for quick, high level questions I think; the phone function is great based on the fact that both reps we had in our two calls were great to work with (albeit unable to solve our problem). I am frustrated by the source of the identity/security questions, but that is more of a problem with the credit rating bureaus.....

So I am not ready to complain, throw up my hands, rant, etc. It is what it is - in my corporate life I saw the implementation of many different IT systems, and all of them - from simple to complex - had many issues that took a long time to work through. And this particular system feeds, and is being fed by, many other info systems some of which may themselves not be very slick.

That's where things are.....(and reading back on this, I start too many sentences with "so"!)

[NYC_SKP]

1. So, this sounds like a real PITA!

I would be so tempted to get in a car with daughter and two forms of ID and go straight to the nearest actual live person office setting.

But I don't know if NC has one!

Out here it was a breeze, I called last week and had a nice person on the phone, named Osama, yeah, I know, who helped me through the whole thing and we even made a three-way call with my PCP staff to be sure they were on the plan.

Osama, lol, even convinced me to go with a silver plan over gold because it was really a better deal when one looks at the details.

We didn't have the Experian ID issues, but then there's no subsidy for me and if there was I might have to bear greater scrutiny.

Good luck!

[Rstrstx]

2. Might want to try the application over (and over and over) again on the website

You can keep reapplying on the website as often as you want, you'll just need a new screen name and email account to do it. A word of note, I've noticed they put in some totally off-the-wall questions that are intended to throw people off. If you don't recognize the answer to any of the questions just answer none of the above instead of trying to guess. They seem to have about 10 potential questions they use, if you get a funny one and get it wrong just try again. For new email accounts just add a 1,2 etc at the end (e.g. [e-mail], JohnDoe2, etc) and don't forget which one was the one you used to get through.

Don't give up hope, I had to do it AT LEAST 12 times before everything worked. It took about 4-5 tries before I got past the Experian checkpoint, unfortunately there are other roadblocks ahead, or at least there were back in mid-October.

[FarCenter]

3. Has she checked her Experian credit report

http://www.experian.com/assistance/free-annual-credit-report.html

[MH1]

5. That was my first thought, too.

If she's getting questions she doesn't know the answer to, and they're coming from data at a credit agency ... there might be something hinky with her credit report, that needs clearing up, completely separate from what happens with ACA.

[FarCenter]

6. If former live-in boyfriend's credit details are associated with her SSN, that could be trouble.

He could have used her SSN and forged her signature on a credit card application.

[MH1]

7. Exactly. Or,

something less ominous that's just a screw-up somewhere, but either way, if it's causing trouble now, it could definitely cause even more trouble later.

The scenario you suggest is probably most likely but I always try to avoid assuming malice when simple error might be the cause.

[Puzzledtraveller]

4. The ACA saga is becoming incoherent

I do not even know what my situation will be with my own insurance, or how our current medicaid eligibility will be effected in 2014 and I have been a medicaid caseworker in KY since 2009. The lack of info from our own Cabinet has many of my coworkers concerned. Though we trained on the basics of the ACA back in September, we are just now getting our training on the actual application software for the HBE's. You see, we began the online system on 10/1,for people to apply at home for themselves. We have not yet actually begun to take in-office applications. That begins on 12/16. Please believe me when I say we are rather confused.