OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Mixed bag at HealthCare.gov

by Jonathan Easley and Elise Viebeck - 12/02/13 5:52 PM ET

The Obama administration reported a surge of renewed interest in HealthCare.gov on Monday, saying 375,000 had visited the online federal exchanges before noon. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services spokeswoman Julie Bataille said that’s roughly double the traffic the site receives on a typical Monday, and that HealthCare.gov also logged better than average numbers on Sunday. Separately, administration officials said they expected enrollment in the healthcare exchanges to increase because of fixes made to the website.

The HHS said it would report November enrollment figures in mid-December, and that it expects the number of enrollees to spike because of the website repairs and a surge in enrollments in the state-run exchanges. The state markets have largely avoided the problems facing the federally run exchanges, and have emerged as a rare bright spot for the healthcare launch.

Back-up system deployed: Still, there are signs that the website issues will linger. A back-up system was deployed for HealthCare.gov on Monday at a lower traffic rate than federal officials projected, signaling there could be further trouble with the system. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acknowledged that the site’s try-again-later system was initiated as roughly 35,000 users tried to access HealthCare.gov at the same time. The CMS had previously said the back-up system would be used only when HealthCare.gov was coping with 50,000 simultaneous visitors. Read more at Healthwatch.

{mosads}Back to Capitol Hill: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will testify again before lawmakers now that the deadline for fixing HealthCare.gov has passed. She will appear before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Health, led by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), on Wednesday, Dec. 11. Republicans previewed their criticism of the secretary and promised to focus on her April 18 comment to lawmakers that ObamaCare’s implementation was progressing fine. Read the story at Healthwatch.

When will Obama sign up? White House press secretary Jay Carney sidestepped questions Monday about whether the president has signed up for health insurance under ObamaCare. “I know that he will and has said that he will, the White House has said that he will, but I don’t have an update,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Monday. Healthwatch has the story.

Permanent CEO: President Obama will name a new individual to oversee the ObamaCare website after the departure of Jeffrey Zients at the end of the year, the White House said Monday. “That is an important role and we have seen in the way that Jeff has worked in that role that kind of management position needs to be filled,” press secretary Jay Carney said at his afternoon briefing.

Zients was appointed last month to oversee repairs to the website after a botched rollout plagued by technical glitches prevented many consumers from purchasing coverage through the ObamaCare exchanges. But before taking the position, Zients had been appointed as incoming director of the National Economic Council — a job he’s slated to take over in the new year. The Hill has more.

State by state

CMS offering HealthCare.gov workaround to enroll Medicaid applicants, Modern Healthcare reports [free registration required].

Covered California launches small business insurance portal, CBS Los Angeles reports.

Wyoming governor still rejecting Medicaid expansion, The Associated Press reports.

Reading list

ObamaCare media updates are starting to get tense, The Washington Post reports.

Consumers fear they’ll end up without coverage on Jan. 1, Kaiser Health News reports.

Meet the Los Angeles billionaire who is reinventing your health, according to the Huffington Post.

What you might have missed at Healthwatch

HealthCare.gov allows expanded window shopping

Report: Nov. O-Care site enrollment near 100K

High court steers clear of ObamaCare mandate