Grothman seeks to require further verification to access Healthcare.gov accounts
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeulah, has proposed legislation that he said would protect sensitive health information and reduce fraud in the Healthcare.gov marketplace. But, a healthcare consumer advocacy group said the plan doesn’t go far enough in targeting the main fraud issues with the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Grothman released legislation earlier this summer that would require multifactor authentication, where consumers have to supply two or more authentication factors like a password or token to verify their identities, for anyone seeking to enroll in Healthcare.gov coverage or access personalized enrollment information.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which operates the federally facilitated marketplace, could provide alternative authentication methods for those without broadband or cellphone service.
“Fraudsters are constantly looking for ways to exploit weak security systems, and the federal government shouldn’t make it easy for them,” Grothman said in a statement.
Jennifer Sullivan, senior policy advisor for insurance markets and regulation at Families USA, said unauthorized enrollment in Healthcare.gov plans has increased. Multifactor authentication is a common practice used for accessing secure information online.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t go nearly far enough in terms of providing the kinds of protections and additional security measures that are needed to address what we’ve been seeing in the marketplace,” she said.
The bill does not address vulnerabilities with enhanced direct enrollment, which allows consumers and agents “side door” access to Healthcare.gov to more easily sign people up for coverage, she said.
“Nefarious” agents, brokers and marketing organizations have used that pathway to enroll consumers in plans without their consent to receive commissions, she said.
Increasing penalties for brokers and third-party marketing organizations that exploit the loophole, which senators have proposed in a different bill, and taking into consideration recommendations from a recent Government Accountability Office report, could help in “battening down the hatches” and protecting consumers, Sullivan said.
A CMS spokesperson declined to comment on the bill, but noted that Healthcare.gov offers multifactor authentication when consumers create their accounts.
The spokesperson said CMS has implemented security measures for agents and brokers that require multifactor authentication and is working on requiring a process similar to it for brokers and agents to access consumers’ applications.
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