Rubio, McConnell, Inhofe Introduce Bill To Protect Americans From Fraud Through Obamacare
Today in Washington, D.C. - Nov. 7, 2013
The House is not in session.
The Senate reconvened today at 10 AM and resumed consideration of S. 815, legislation known as ENDA.
At 11:45 AM, the Senate voted 43-55 to reject amendment to S. 815 offered by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), which would have expanded religious exemptions in the bill. The senators then voted 64-34 to invoke cloture (to cut off debate and amendments) on the bill.
At 1:45 PM the senate passed ENDA 64-32. Passage of the bill in its present form is expected to be delated in the House by Speaker Boehner who does no agree with the bill as written.
The Hill reports today, “Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) . . . dropped legislation on Thursday that would prevent felons from being hired as ObamaCare navigators. The ‘Healthcare Privacy and Anti-Fraud Act’ would — at a minimum — require a universal criminal background check, fingerprinting, and a credit report for those seeking a job to help walk potential consumers through the insurance enrollment process. It would also preclude the Department of Health and Human Services from hiring a navigator that has been convicted of a felony, or a misdemeanor involving identity theft, fraud or perjury. Republicans have pounced on what they say are security flaws in the HealthCare.Gov rollout, as leaked internal documents show contractors and officials expressed concern before the rollout that there wasn’t enough time to thoroughly test the website before it went live on Oct. 1. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a congressional panel on Wednesday that it was ‘possible’ for an ObamaCare navigator to have been convicted of a felony.”
In a statement he made introducing the bill, Sen. Rubio said, “The ObamaCare exchange websites were supposed to be the primary means for people to buy health insurance, but due to their failures so far, the federal government is forcing people to pursue other enrollment options that could make them even more susceptible to identity theft, particularly through the navigator system. Just yesterday, Secretary Sebelius made a startling admission that convicted felons could become navigators. It is unacceptable that President Obama suggest that the American people simply trust the federal government and its network of ObamaCare navigators. As consumers are being pushed to shop for insurance through ObamaCare navigators and other non-online options, they must also proceed with great care and caution against fraudsters intending to do them harm. This is a common sense effort to ensure that the federal government is not needlessly endangering the private information of millions of Americans, or exposing them to additional risk of fraud.”
The bill’s original co-sponsors include Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Thad Cochran (R-MS), James Inhofe (R-OK), and Pat Roberts (R-KS).
Last week, The Jackson [TN] Sun reported, “Since open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act began on Oct. 1, [Dorothy Turner-Montague] receives calls four to five times a day from the elderly because someone has called or come to their home to try to scam them. . . . Turner-Montague, a state health insurance information programs coordinator, said the scammers contact local elderly people and offer services to help navigate healthcare changes. . . . The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has received reports of fraudulent activity. ‘We’ve been made aware of a few scams already,’ said Kate Abernathy, a spokeswoman for the state agency. ‘Just today, one of our navigator groups contacted us because they had heard about an individual claiming to be a navigator and charging consumers $100 to sign them up on the exchange.’”
And just yesterday there were more reports about security vulnerabilities on the Obamacare exchange website. The AP reported, “Documents show that the part of HealthCare.gov that consumers interact with directly received only a temporary six-month security certification because it had not been fully tested before Oct. 1, when the website went live. It's also the part of the system that stores personal information. . . . According to federal law and policy, all government computer systems must have a security certification before going live. [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Marilyn] Tavenner approved the Sept. 27 security certification for the health website, which read: ‘Aspects of the system that were not tested due to the ongoing development exposed a level of uncertainty that can be deemed as a high risk.’”
And Politico wrote, “A software tester recently discovered a series of potential security flaws, including one in the site’s password-reset function that would enable a skilled hacker to access users’ email and security questions. Another allowed a password-reset request to send information to third-party analytics companies such as Pingdom and Google’s DoubleClick. A report this week indicated that a North Carolina man logged on to the site only to receive eligibility information about someone in another state. . . .Security analysts fear they hint at bigger bugs in the system. Such weaknesses might not only allow hackers to access personal information but make it easier to engage in clickjacking — a process where harmful links appear like legitimate portions of a website — or pharming, where criminals direct users to a bogus site and take their information. . . . Ben Simo, a former president of the Association for Software Testing and the man who found the website password glitches . . . warned other threats might exist in the way reset codes are transmitted. ‘Most of these are the kinds of issues that competent Web developers try to avoid,’ he said in a blog post, ‘and in the rare case that they are created, are usually found by competent testers. … I am still concerned about HealthCare.gov security. It should concern all of us.’”
Center for Democracy and Technology chief technologist was blunt in an interview with Politico, saying, “Some of these things are real amateur hour. . . . This might just be an error, but you could not pass an undergraduate [computer science] class by making these mistakes.”
As Leader McConnell said in a letter to Tavenner in August, “Americans should not be forced to enter into exchanges when CMS is so ill-prepared to guarantee the protection of personal data and taxpayer resources from hackers and cyber criminals who would use this sensitive data for personal gain.”
Tags: ENDA, Obamacare fraud To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The House is not in session.
The Senate reconvened today at 10 AM and resumed consideration of S. 815, legislation known as ENDA.
At 11:45 AM, the Senate voted 43-55 to reject amendment to S. 815 offered by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), which would have expanded religious exemptions in the bill. The senators then voted 64-34 to invoke cloture (to cut off debate and amendments) on the bill.
At 1:45 PM the senate passed ENDA 64-32. Passage of the bill in its present form is expected to be delated in the House by Speaker Boehner who does no agree with the bill as written.
The Hill reports today, “Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) . . . dropped legislation on Thursday that would prevent felons from being hired as ObamaCare navigators. The ‘Healthcare Privacy and Anti-Fraud Act’ would — at a minimum — require a universal criminal background check, fingerprinting, and a credit report for those seeking a job to help walk potential consumers through the insurance enrollment process. It would also preclude the Department of Health and Human Services from hiring a navigator that has been convicted of a felony, or a misdemeanor involving identity theft, fraud or perjury. Republicans have pounced on what they say are security flaws in the HealthCare.Gov rollout, as leaked internal documents show contractors and officials expressed concern before the rollout that there wasn’t enough time to thoroughly test the website before it went live on Oct. 1. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a congressional panel on Wednesday that it was ‘possible’ for an ObamaCare navigator to have been convicted of a felony.”
In a statement he made introducing the bill, Sen. Rubio said, “The ObamaCare exchange websites were supposed to be the primary means for people to buy health insurance, but due to their failures so far, the federal government is forcing people to pursue other enrollment options that could make them even more susceptible to identity theft, particularly through the navigator system. Just yesterday, Secretary Sebelius made a startling admission that convicted felons could become navigators. It is unacceptable that President Obama suggest that the American people simply trust the federal government and its network of ObamaCare navigators. As consumers are being pushed to shop for insurance through ObamaCare navigators and other non-online options, they must also proceed with great care and caution against fraudsters intending to do them harm. This is a common sense effort to ensure that the federal government is not needlessly endangering the private information of millions of Americans, or exposing them to additional risk of fraud.”
The bill’s original co-sponsors include Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Thad Cochran (R-MS), James Inhofe (R-OK), and Pat Roberts (R-KS).
Last week, The Jackson [TN] Sun reported, “Since open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act began on Oct. 1, [Dorothy Turner-Montague] receives calls four to five times a day from the elderly because someone has called or come to their home to try to scam them. . . . Turner-Montague, a state health insurance information programs coordinator, said the scammers contact local elderly people and offer services to help navigate healthcare changes. . . . The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has received reports of fraudulent activity. ‘We’ve been made aware of a few scams already,’ said Kate Abernathy, a spokeswoman for the state agency. ‘Just today, one of our navigator groups contacted us because they had heard about an individual claiming to be a navigator and charging consumers $100 to sign them up on the exchange.’”
And just yesterday there were more reports about security vulnerabilities on the Obamacare exchange website. The AP reported, “Documents show that the part of HealthCare.gov that consumers interact with directly received only a temporary six-month security certification because it had not been fully tested before Oct. 1, when the website went live. It's also the part of the system that stores personal information. . . . According to federal law and policy, all government computer systems must have a security certification before going live. [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Marilyn] Tavenner approved the Sept. 27 security certification for the health website, which read: ‘Aspects of the system that were not tested due to the ongoing development exposed a level of uncertainty that can be deemed as a high risk.’”
And Politico wrote, “A software tester recently discovered a series of potential security flaws, including one in the site’s password-reset function that would enable a skilled hacker to access users’ email and security questions. Another allowed a password-reset request to send information to third-party analytics companies such as Pingdom and Google’s DoubleClick. A report this week indicated that a North Carolina man logged on to the site only to receive eligibility information about someone in another state. . . .Security analysts fear they hint at bigger bugs in the system. Such weaknesses might not only allow hackers to access personal information but make it easier to engage in clickjacking — a process where harmful links appear like legitimate portions of a website — or pharming, where criminals direct users to a bogus site and take their information. . . . Ben Simo, a former president of the Association for Software Testing and the man who found the website password glitches . . . warned other threats might exist in the way reset codes are transmitted. ‘Most of these are the kinds of issues that competent Web developers try to avoid,’ he said in a blog post, ‘and in the rare case that they are created, are usually found by competent testers. … I am still concerned about HealthCare.gov security. It should concern all of us.’”
Center for Democracy and Technology chief technologist was blunt in an interview with Politico, saying, “Some of these things are real amateur hour. . . . This might just be an error, but you could not pass an undergraduate [computer science] class by making these mistakes.”
As Leader McConnell said in a letter to Tavenner in August, “Americans should not be forced to enter into exchanges when CMS is so ill-prepared to guarantee the protection of personal data and taxpayer resources from hackers and cyber criminals who would use this sensitive data for personal gain.”
Tags: ENDA, Obamacare fraud To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 2:11 PM - Post Link
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home