California Exchanges Web Site Not Ready for Prime Time

[TromboneAl]

OK, I finished the enrollment. There were a few glitches and annoyances. They really need to just ask you for information on lines of your tax forms, if you filed. Why don't they do that?

They also needed Lena's Naturalization Certificate number, which required a nervous trip to the safe deposit box (it was there, but we weren't sure).

The process would be easier for someone who just has monthly income.

Their estimate of $29/month was off, it will be $66/month with a $1,221 subsidy. That's OK with us!

 

[Zantastic]

Were you able to check to see which doctors and hospitals will be in your new network?

OK, I finished the enrollment. There were a few glitches and annoyances. They really need to just ask you for information on lines of your tax forms, if you filed. Why don't they do that? They also needed Lena's Naturalization Certificate number, which required a nervous trip to the safe deposit box (it was there, but we weren't sure). The process would be easier for someone who just has monthly income. Their estimate of $29/month was off, it will be $66/month with a $1,221 subsidy. That's OK with us!

 

[Rustward]

General web site comment:

I'd love to hear from any web designers on this. This kind of thing drives me nuts. It's the same with phone numbers, and CC numbers. I've actually been on some sites that don't show you what format they want the phone number in, until you enter it 'wrong', and then you get an error page that tells you to enter it as follows:

(AAA)EEE-XXXX

Phone numbers and SSNs are only numbers. Isn't it easier for the programmer to just strip any non-numeric from the input and accept it? I'm pretty sure that is only one command, something like INPUT(1234567890)? Isn't that easier than writing a separate error handling routine for this? CC numbers are kinda hard to enter and keep straight w/o spaces or dashes to help make sure you got it right. Just throw out the spaces and dashes.
What are(n't?) they thinking?

-ERD50

The separators in numeric fields can be a PITA. I don't think that non-numeric data should just be indiscriminately thrown away, though. I do think they can be edited out of a properly formatted entry, like nnn-nnn-nnnn or (nnn)nnn-nnnn for phone numbers, but not nn-nnnn-nnnn or nnn n nn-nnnn, and mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd for dates, but not mm-dd/yyyy or mm dd/yyyy. If you just throw away all non-numeric data, you may change what would have been an invalid entry to something that may be valid, and also be incorrect. I have also seen separate segments of different numbers entered into separate fields, and this works well, as long as there is room for the whole number, thinking of phone numbers out of the US and credit card numbers that are longer than 16 digits.

I see a lot of places using dotted decimal notation for phone numbers, now that IP is so popular. It seems to have become accepted, but very few people realize that any segment with other than three digits, or any number greater than 255 is invalid in that format. I guess it would be better to see this as decimals being used as delimiters. Edit to add: I'll never understand how dotted decimal came into use for IP anyway. Hexadecimal seems like the logical choice for IP addresses, as they are so much easier to convert to bit patterns.

Actually I could live with just about any format numbers if the world would learn when to use then and than, and you're and your.

 

[TromboneAl]

Were you able to check to see which doctors and hospitals will be in your new network?

I didn't try. I'll go to a witch doctor if it means saving $850/month, so I figured it didn't matter.

Both our current plan and our new one will be with Anthem Blue Cross, so it's a pretty good bet that we can keep the same doctor.

 

[donheff]

I didn't try. I'll go to a witch doctor if it means saving $850/month, so I figured it didn't matter.

Both our current plan and our new one will be with Anthem Blue Cross, so it's a pretty good bet that we can keep the same doctor.

I didn't know Alternative Medicine was part of the ACA. Must be why California got bipartisan support on setting up an exchange.

 

[REWahoo]

Which doctor?

 

[Hamlet]

A lot of the Bronze plans in Minnesota have the max allowable deductible and very low premiums.

So they don't cost much for young people, but they aren't likely to have to pay much out, since most young people will be very unlikely to hit the deductible.

As long as enough of those young people are reasonably health, that is.

Whether it works is all going to boil down to how effective the subsidies and the individual mandate are in getting everyone into the pool.

I was watching CNN and their " doctor reporter" stated that 6 out of 10 of the individuals buying into the exchange will be paying around 100 dollars a month for coverage. With those rates, I'm not so sure that they won't run out of policies. If not this year, then next.

 

[FIREd]

I didn't know Alternative Medicine was part of the ACA. Must be why California got bipartisan support on setting up an exchange.

The cheapest plan available to me under ACA is the Chinese Community Health Plan. Some alternative medicine like acupuncture is covered.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Thanks for the best laugh I've had in a long time!

I didn't try. I'll go to a witch doctor if it means saving $850/month, so I figured it didn't matter.

Both our current plan and our new one will be with Anthem Blue Cross, so it's a pretty good bet that we can keep the same doctor.

We've missed you, Al!

 

[harley]

There are reports of DDOS attacks on ACA web sites.

I believe those were excuses. I didn't see anything credible regarding DDOS's. I think it was just too many customers.

Phone numbers and SSNs are only numbers. Isn't it easier for the programmer to just strip any non-numeric from the input and accept it? I'm pretty sure that is only one command, something like INPUT(1234567890)? Isn't that easier than writing a separate error handling routine for this? CC numbers are kinda hard to enter and keep straight w/o spaces or dashes to help make sure you got it right. Just throw out the spaces and dashes.

What are(n't?) they thinking?

-ERD50

The separators in numeric fields can be a PITA. I don't think that non-numeric data should just be indiscriminately thrown away, though. I do think they can be edited out of a properly formatted entry, like nnn-nnn-nnnn or (nnn)nnn-nnnn for phone numbers, but not nn-nnnn-nnnn or nnn n nn-nnnn, and mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd for dates, but not mm-dd/yyyy or mm dd/yyyy.

On a scale of 1 - 10, dealing with the dashes are probably a 3, so I can see why some (really bad) developers don't get it right. But my pet peeve is when a phone number or SSN is broken up into 3 fields, but the cursor doesn't automatically jump to the next field. At this point I can only assume they're eff'ing with us on purpose.

 

[scrinch]

Which doctor?

That photo was taken before Rich-by-the-Bay retired, shaved his beard, and moved to San Francisco. Today he looks really wild!

 

[Midpack]

I don't need ACA yet, but I don't plan to go online to even look for a while. No surprise that the initial traffic is overwhelming the new sites. Funny, MSNBC "observed" the federal exchange site had 4.7M hits the first day, 4.6M were media who then reported how slow/frozen the sites are. They even showed footage of some local reporters online while reporting...hello?

 

[easysurfer]

Guess that's the reporters being the news story

 

[Rosie]

FYI to anyone attempting to use the Covered CA site, I saw this on the top page:

------------------------------
Announcements
We will be performing regular maintenance beginning Saturday, October 5, at 8 pm through Monday, October 7, 2013, at 3 am.
------------------------------


One can only hope

 

[donheff]

FYI to anyone attempting to use the Covered CA site, I saw this on the top page:

------------------------------
Announcements
We will be performing regular maintenance beginning Saturday, October 5, at 8 pm through Monday, October 7, 2013, at 3 am.
------------------------------


One can only hope

You would think someone would have the common sense to phrase that simply "maintenance" rather than "regular maintenance."

 

[photoguy]

FYI to anyone attempting to use the Covered CA site, I saw this on the top page:

------------------------------
Announcements
We will be performing regular maintenance beginning Saturday, October 5, at 8 pm through Monday, October 7, 2013, at 3 am.
------------------------------


One can only hope

Seems to be working and I started browsing it this morning. Anybody know how to tell if a plan is multi-state?

 

[MichaelB]

Seems to be working and I started browsing it this morning. Anybody know how to tell if a plan is multi-state?

This link is to the OMP home page for multistate options. It has a map of states and MSP status. If you click on yours a list comes up with the plan names. Multi-State Plan Program and the Health Insurance Marketplace

 

[M Paquette]

You would think someone would have the common sense to phrase that simply "maintenance" rather than "regular maintenance."

It's just [-]web weenie[/-] system administration jargon. "Regular maintenance" generally refers to preplanned periodic maintenance events. "We plan to take the site down each weekend during the rollout period to install the production team's patches and update site content." One-off "Maintenance" shutdowns generally refer to making repairs that don't require an immediate shutdown, but can be delayed a few hours. This would include some hardware fixes.

Like pretty much every piece of terminology, this is susceptible to becoming 'corporate-speak', mindlessly emitted jargon that does not mean what the listener thinks it means.

 

[donheff]

It's just [-]web weenie[/-] system administration jargon. "Regular maintenance" generally refers to preplanned periodic maintenance events. "We plan to take the site down each weekend during the rollout period to install the production team's patches and update site content." One-off "Maintenance" shutdowns generally refer to making repairs that don't require an immediate shutdown, but can be delayed a few hours. This would include some hardware fixes.

Like pretty much every piece of terminology, this is susceptible to becoming 'corporate-speak', mindlessly emitted jargon that does not mean what the listener thinks it means.

Correct, but what I was reacting to is that a whole weekend down is not what the standard "regular maintenance" is about. No one regularly schedules websites to be down for the whole weekend. This is let's pray we can fixit maintenance or to be non-specific just maintenance..

 

[photoguy]

This link is to the OMP home page for multistate options. It has a map of states and MSP status

Thanks for the link. I'm really shocked at how many states have no MSP options.

 

[M Paquette]

Correct, but what I was reacting to is that a whole weekend down is not what the standard "regular maintenance" is about. No one regularly schedules websites to be down for the whole weekend. This is let's pray we can fixit maintenance or to be non-specific just maintenance..

Wildly offtopic now, but... The State of California is... noteworthy... for it's web sites. One of the "Best Web Sites Evar" was the Registrar's Office for the California State University system campuses back in the early 2000's. The silly thing kept office hours. Yes, the web site was only available from 8:30 AM until 5 PM Monday-Friday. I'm pretty sure the sophisticated back end processing consisted of a printer, from which an employee would regularly remove paper and then FAX to the appropriate office.

Just shutting down for the weekend as part of their rollout is pretty mild stuff. They also had shutdowns planned for the middle of the night last week for more urgent changes. This isn't exactly a 'sky is the limit' bigtime commercial project rollout. It's more of a 'built by the lowest bidder', 'compliant with state and federal privacy regulations for medical and tax data', proceeding with caution sort of project. If you want to think of it as a live beta test, well, yeah. The preferred terms are 'rapid prototyping' and 'spiral development'. Yaaay! Buzzwords!

Folks who are really curious about how the web site is being bolted together can check out the UX 2014 project, which provides a reference front-end implementation:
http://www.ux2014.org

 

[Peter]

Also it's not closed 'the whole weekend'. Only Saturday evening through to early Monday morning.