Washington Health Benefit Exchange withdraws incorrect amounts from 13,000 customers' bank accounts

OLYMPIA -- The Washington Health Benefit Exchange said Tuesday that about 13,000 customers had an incorrect amount of money withdrawn from their bank accounts to pay their insurance premium this month.

They said they plan to reverse the incorrect withdrawals within the next 48 hours.

Exchange CEO Richard Onizuka said in a statement, "Yesterday evening, the Exchange was made aware that a portion of Washington Healthplanfinder Qualified Health Plan customers had an incorrect amount withdrawn from their bank account during our standard monthly payment process.

"The issue affected 13,000 customer accounts that had previously set up automatic payment through their online account.

"We are working closely with our system integrator, Deloitte, to reverse the incorrect withdrawals as quickly as possible, but no later than the next 48 hours.

"We have notified affected customers of this issue and will provide final confirmation when the payment issue has been resolved.

"We apologize to our impacted customers and are working to correct the problem to minimize any further inconvenience they may have already experienced," he said.

Some customers reportedly had hundreds of dollars more than they owed withdrawn from their accounts.