Washington Health Benefit Exchange

REMOVING A SPOUSE FROM APPLICATION

JANUARY 27, 2014

Currently there is a defect in the Healthplanfinder in which a spouse cannot be removed successfully from an application when the tax filing status is “Married Filing Jointly”.

This occurs because there is a system screen level validation on the “Add a Member” page that is being invoked incorrectly.

The screen level validation is intended to ensure that tax filing status and household composition are accurate/legitimate.

Unfortunately, the validation is being invoked during removal of a member, which is a defect. This causes the following validation message to appear on the “Add a Member” screen:

You indicated a tax filing status of “Married filing taxes jointly”. Please add your spouse as a household member on this screen and enter the same tax filing status.

Background information to the issue...

Subsequently what we are seeing is that the Primary Applicant’s tax filing status is then being updated to “Single Filing Taxes” to avoid the previous validation.

Because the deleted members’ information is still behind the scene on the application (this is per design until the Eligibility Service closes their request for coverage out successfully) the following screen validation is received:

“You have indicated a tax filing status of “single filing taxes”. Per the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), married couples must claim “Married Filing Separately” or “Married Filing jointly” when filing their annual tax returns; please update

your tax filing status and the tax filing status of your spouse.

At this point, the applicant cannot proceed passed the “Add a Member” screen without assistance.

Background information to the issue contd...

To avoid this Error...1. From the Dashboard select “Report a change” on the application2. Select “Something else has been changed” (second to last question)3. Page through to the Primary Applicant tax information screen, update the status to “Single Filling Taxes” for Current (2014) and

Next year (2015)4. Select “Next” 5. “Add a Member” screen will generate6. Select the “Edit” icon for the Spouse7. Change the Relationship value of the Spouse to “Unrelated”8. Change the tax filing status to “Single Filling Taxes” for Current (2014) and Next year (2015) for the spouse9. Select “Save”10. Select “Next” on “Add a Member” screen11. Indicate PA will be tax filer for the Kids (if applicable)12. On the “Relationship” screen, select “Back” to return to “Add a Member” screen13. Remove the Spouse, enter date, and reason14. Page through to the “Application Review” screen, verify all the details, and E-sign the Application15. Eligibility Results should be displayed and coverage should be closed for the spouse

If you receive an error:Contact your Lead Organization and request they submit a Zendesk ticket with Subject line: “Inability to remove a spouse”

**IMPORTANT**

Do NOT remove a member from the application, if they should still be included in the household for reasons of determining

household composition. Rather, update coverage seeking indicator to “No” instead

(please note that you must update income by $.01 when updating the request for coverage indicator”

NEVER re-add the spouse to the application to attempt to correct the error

This will lead to errors that are much more difficult to resolve

THANK YOU!

**IMPORTANT**

Do NOT remove a member from the application, if they should still be included in the household for reasons of determining household composition. Rather, update coverage seeking indicator to “No” instead

(please note that you must update income by $.01 when updating the request for coverage indicator”

NEVER re-add the spouse to the application to attempt to correct the errorThis will lead to errors that are much more difficult to resolve

THANK YOU!