HHS: Affordable Care Act website performed as promised near deadline.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies before a House Energy and Commerce Committee on the Affordable Car Act and the roll out of it's website, on Capitol Hill, Dec. 11, 2013, in Washington, D.C. UPI/Kevin Dietsch |
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The Obamacare website HealthCare.gov handled 83,000 concurrent users before the deadline of Christmas Eve -- as promised, U.S. government officials say.
Julie Bataille, director of communications at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Resources, wrote on a blog that as the deadline loomed for the uninsured and those who buy their own health insurance and were canceled at the end of the year, there was no question the marketplace website met the mark.
"There's no question that, over this past weekend, Monday and Tuesday, healthcare.gov met the mark and did exactly what it was supposed to do -- help Americans from across the country find secure, quality health insurance coverage at an affordable price," Bataille wrote.
"Over this four-day period, response time averages held steady at about a half-second and page error rates were low at less than 0.5 percent. Monday, Dec. 23, was our peak day. On Monday, the site was supporting 83,000 concurrent users while our queuing system was up, and it performed as designed. For those queued, wait times were generally less than 5 to 10 minutes and users were given the option of receiving an email telling them when they could come back and get right in."
There were 129,000 people who took advantage of this opportunity and were invited back the same day to finish their applications and on Christmas Eve, the site had a total of 880,000 visits, with no queuing, Bataille said.
The call center also received a high volume of calls on Monday and Tuesday, with 317,000 calls received on Christmas Eve alone, Bataille said.
If consumers have any questions regarding their coverage, they should call the insurer they chose among to confirm enrollment or arrange payment of premiums, or call the marketplace call center at 1-800-318-2596, Bataille said.
