{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://woodall.house.gov/news-story/healthcaregov-still-suffers-lack-transparency", "HealthCare.gov Still Suffers From Lack of Transparency", "2014-10-07", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "GA", "Rob Woodall", "W000810", "woodall.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The new chief executive of HealthCare.gov, Kevin Counihan, is setting expectations really high for the website\u2019s performance during its second year of open enrollment, set to begin in mid-November. In an interview with Alex Wayne of Bloomberg News, Mr. Counihan said his goal was to create a consumer experience so satisfying that it would result in \u201craving fans\u201d for the insurance shopping site\nBut here\u2019s one big hurdle: The site still won\u2019t have any tools to allow consumers to see which doctors and hospitals are covered by individual insurance plans. Mr. Counihan told Mr. Wayne that HealthCare.gov would not change to allow consumers to comparison shop on insurance plan networks.\nPlans that limit patients\u2019 choices of doctors and hospitals have turned out to be the signature product of the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. That may be a welcome development for cost-conscious consumers, but only if they know what they\u2019re buying.\nThe proliferation of these plans is not a surprise. As we\u2019ve written before, the combination of new regulations and insurers\u2019 desire to keep prices low have made the plans, known as narrow networks, an attractive option for insurers seeking to offer affordable choices.\nAnd evidence shows that a narrow network does not necessarily mean a bad plan. A recent study of narrow plans offered to Massachusetts state employees found that people who chose the narrow plans spent less money and seemed to have equally good health care, compared with their counterparts in more traditional plans.\nBut the researchers behind that study said they thought a key to the program\u2019s success was that the employees understood the trade-offs and knowingly chose a plan with a lower premium and fewer doctors.\nThat may not always be the case in the federal marketplaces, where there\u2019s no easy way to compare the doctors and hospitals that are covered by plans without researching each one individually \u2014 by calling the companies or searching on their websites. Even the dedicated shopper willing to do that extra work may find it frustrating. Insurers may offer different networks for different products, which is not always clear. The lists of hospitals and doctors are also often out of date. Journalists at The Los Angeles Times recently constructed an interactive website to allow California consumers to see which plans cover their doctors. Shoppers in other states will not be so lucky.\nThis year, many people appear to have signed up for narrow plans unwittingly. A survey from the health research group the Commonwealth Fund found that about 25 percent of people with new exchange plans didn\u2019t even know whether they\u2019d bought a narrow network plan. So far, overall satisfaction seems relatively high, though most people are still fairly new to their plans. There are consumers in some states who are suing over their inability to get the care they need.\nStories like those recently chronicled by my colleague Elisabeth Rosenthal, of patients surprised to learn after the fact that they had been treated by out-of-network doctors, seem likely to proliferate if poor transparency about networks prevails.\nGiven HealthCare.gov\u2019s difficulties with basic functions last year, it\u2019s understandable that the government is focusing on core tasks, rather than adding new tools. But the continued challenges consumers will face comparing networks could undermine a key underpinning of the marketplaces \u2014 that people should be able to shop for insurance products the way they do for airline tickets or electronics, comparing prices and features in order to select the plan that\u2019s right for them. Who will rave about a market without transparency?", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://woodall.house.gov/news-story/healthcaregov-still-suffers-lack-transparency"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5979576855897903, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}