Massachusetts has received a three-month extension from the federal government to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The extension comes a week after the state adjusted its approach to fix its troubled health care insurance website.
The extension was granted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is overseeing the federal law. The state had asked for six months of additional time beyond the original March 31 deadline to complete the enrollment process. Last week, Blue Cross Blue Shield executive Sarah Iselin was tapped to oversee the fixes.
“When you are doing a project this big and one that gets off track, you really need a single point of accountability,” said Iselin.
Website issues have left thousands of Massachusetts residents unsure about the status of their coverage, although the state has pledged that no one will be denied care.
Connector officials say they are dealing manually with about 50,000 paper applications, each taking two hours to process.