Federal officials say all of the issues with HealthCare.gov should be resolved by the end of the month. Image: HealthCare.gov
Nashville-based HCA is hoping problems with the HealthCare.gov website are fixed soon. The nation’s largest for-profit hospital company is betting on a bonanza of newly insured patients. HCA has hired 400 of its own counselors to help people sign up for coverage on the new health insurance exchanges.
Like everyone else, HCA’s counselors are enrolling the uninsured through HealthCare.gov. But the website’s outages and error messages mean it’s hard to know how that effort is going, says Chief Financial Officer Milton Johnson.
“We’ve trained our coordinators and we feel we’re well positioned to perform,” Johnson said during an earnings call with Wall Street analysts Tuesday. “It’s just a matter, right now, more of the technical difficulties that we’re dealing as far as getting people actually signed up.”
While many analysts asked questions about the exchanges, none asked about what impact HCA would see from self-insured patients who face cancellation of their existing policies.
Johnson says almost all of HCA’s more than 160 hospitals accept at least a bronze-level plan, the lowest tier of coverage offered on the insurance exchanges.
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