About 16,000 Minnesotans who applied for Medical Assistance through MNsure are still without health insurance, some caught in limbo for as long as six months.
State officials said Wednesday that letters notifying consumers of problems with their original insurance applications never got sent out. That mistake meant consumers didn't realize they still had to provide crucial information before they could get coverage.
"It was a serious error on our part of not being more on top of understanding that process, and having the oversight in place," said Deputy Commissioner Chuck Johnson of the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
The process, which was intended to be fully automated, still relies on one of the many manual workarounds holding the MNsure system together. An upgrade to the MNsure system later this month is expected to fully automate the process.
Problems with mailing the letters were first discovered in early January, and were believed to have been resolved. But the agency didn't have the right project management in place to catch continuing issues, Johnson said. Officials discovered late last week that many people still hadn't been notified that their applications were incomplete.
More than 149,000 low-income Minnesotans have used MNsure to sign up for Medical Assistance. But many of those still waiting for approval were flagged because the state needed to get additional information such as verifying income, citizenship, tribal membership or Social Security.
The situation represents the latest misstep by state officials striving to get coverage for as many people as possible, particularly low-income Minnesotans and their families.
The reliance on manual workarounds and a lack of oversight and project management were identified as key ongoing issues in recent reports by outside reviewer Deloitte Consultants. MNsure officials decided last month to focus on improving the current system for this fall's open enrollment period before making a decision about whether it ought to be saved or scrapped in the long haul.