The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week sent out 310,000 demands to Obamacare policyholders to verify their citizenship/immigration eligibility. The prove-it-or-lose-it notices followed failed previous attempts to obtain verification from the individuals.
The HHS set a deadline of Sept. 5, 2014. If no verification of eligibliity is supplied by that time, the policies will be suspended on Sept. 30.
"We want as many consumers as possible to remain enrolled in marketplace coverage, so we are giving these individuals a last chance to submit their documents before their coverage through the marketplace will end," said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner in a statement.
In all, some 970,000 health insurance policies sold under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had citizenship and immigration data issues. About half have been resolved, and 210,000 are still in progress. The rest have been issued notices demanding verification.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Later, HHS will follow up on policyholders with income data problems who are currently being subsidized but whose eligibility has not yet been established.
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