A portion of the Obamacare website that helps connect customers with agents and brokers to buy health insurance has been put back online after facing a hack earlier this month.
Officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the site, said that no banking, tax information, or protected health information had been exposed during the breach. The agency is continuing to assess what information was compromised and will be notifying customers who were affected.
The portion of the healthcare.gov website that was affected is known as the "Direct Enrollment pathway," and CMS previously reported that information from 75,000 people was potentially compromised. After people who were affected are notified, CMS will be allowing them to register for free credit protection, including identity theft insurance and identity restoration services.
Officials haven't yet said who is responsible for the hack, which CMS noticed Oct. 13. The agency declared the breach Oct. 16 and deactivated the accounts for 10 days. An official with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services said Friday that they are still investigating the breach, but declined to provide further information when asked if they had any leads.
Open enrollment, the time during which people can buy plans or switch policies, is still scheduled to start on time Nov. 1.