IRS official: No ObamaCare problems

The IRS’s share of ObamaCare implementation is “going fine,” the director of the tax agency’s implementation office said Wednesday.

Implementing the healthcare law falls mainly to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and the IRS. Technical problems have plagued HHS’s rollout of new insurance exchanges.

But Sarah Hall Ingram, the director of the IRS’s Affordable Care Act office, told a House panel Wednesday that the IRS hasn’t experienced similar problems. 

{mosads}”The portion of the responsibilities the IRS is in charge of is going fine,” Hall Ingram said.

Hall Ingram previously led the IRS office that has been accused of improperly scrutinizing the tax-exempt status of Tea Party organizations. 

Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee assailed Hall Ingram during a hearing Wednesday, seeking to link the targeting scandal to the IRS’s role in implementing the Affordable Care Act.

Hall Ingram said the IRS has created new processes to protect the tax information that would be accessed when consumers apply for insurance through ObamaCare’s exchanges.

“It is secured behind the scenes,” she said. “It is not shown to anyone who is applying or who is assisting them.”

Hall Ingram said the federal data hub, which draws information from several state and federal agencies to help process insurance applications, is working well so far. 

Exchanges have successfully pinged the IRS’s servers to request income information about applicants, and the IRS has been able to respond, she said.

“As far as we can tell, and we are looking on a daily basis, it’s operating well,” Hall Ingram said.