Audit Faults MNsure For Mistakes
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- An audit of MNsure found Minnesota's Human Services Department made multiple mistakes verifying who's eligible for which public health program.
Legislative Auditor James Nobles said human services got it wrong at least 17 percent of the time.
"We spent a lot of money, taken quite a bit of time now and we ought to be at a point where they can get it right -- all the time, on every case," Nobles said.
The report found Minnesotans with duplicate health care accounts and unverified income. One recipient was reported to earn $415 million.
And there were also benefit overpayments even after families reported they'd found a job.
MNsure is launching a statewide ad campaign this week, reminding Minnesotans they may be eligible for state subsidized health care premiums.
And MNsure CEO Scott Leitz is assuring lawmakers the website that melted down last year is dramatically improved.
"Never has 100-percent certainty, but it has a very high level of certainty that we feel very confident of where we're at in the process right now," Leitz said. "And we feel cautiously optimistic that we'll be in very good shape come Saturday."
Not everyone is convinced, such as top Republican leaders like Rep. Tara Mack. She says MNsure's track record doesn't give them confidence.
"Many of the concerns as we approach open enrollment have not been addressed to prove or to really give us evidence that the issues that we had a year ago during open enrollment have been mitigated, have been fixed," Mack said.
The Department of Human Services says it is working on fixing all of the problems, which occurred in the first six months of MNsure. But it says "the scope of the problems we experienced is disappointing."
Open enrollment for health insurance through MNsure begins on Saturday. Leitz said Wednesday they have been testing the system for months to make sure it works, unlike last year.
They've also changed the website itself, which they say is simpler, cleaner and loads five-times faster than it did last year.
Still, they have their fingers tightly crossed for Saturday.
