Doctors, hospitals catch goofs on Washington state insurance exchange

The Seattle Times reports:

The Washington Healthplanfinder insurance exchange has a feature on its website that allows consumers to see if particular doctors and hospitals are in a plan’s network of health-care providers.

The provider directory is to help consumers compare plans on more than just price. The idea is that consumers who want to keep their doctor should be able to find out which plans allow them to do so.

But the directory has been plagued with errors since the website was launched six weeks ago.

The most serious problems have included listing some doctors and hospitals as outside a plan’s network when they are actually in it. This has caused confusion for some consumers trying to choose a plan that includes their doctor or preferred hospital.

Hospitals and physician groups have been busy trying to catch the mistakes and tell the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, which operates Healthplanfinder, to correct the errors. For its part, the exchange acknowledges there are errors and advises consumers to double-check the information on its website with the insurers.