Healthcare.gov's API Finder app returns "File not found"

Question

When I use the Finder API, specifically post the example XML on their Developers page shown in the getIFPPlanBenefits sample to the URL https://api.finder.healthcare.gov/v3.0/getIFPPlanBenefits, I get this an HTTP 503, and this string:

File not found."

in the HTTP response. That's the sum total of the response.

I put the XML request in the body of my POST request and have remembered to set the Content-Type to application/xml

If I use a method name that's not valid, like https://api.finder.healthcare.gov/v3.0/notaname, I get an HTML response and an HTTP 200. The HTML response has some JS, and no visible text other than a noscript tag.

Has anyone else seen this, and what might I be doing wrong?

I don't see where on the site the API doesn't provide access to marketplace plans. can you please provide a more specific pointer? — , Nov 14 '14 at 21:17

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 08 '14 at 05:41

On the command line, give a try to the following successful request (or see/edit it in runscope):

$ curl -XPOST https://api.finder.healthcare.gov/v3.0/getIFPPlanQuotes -d '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<p:PlanQuoteRequest xmlns:p="http://hios.cms.org/api" xmlns:p1="http://hios.cms.org/api-types" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://hios.cms.org/api hios-api-11.0.xsd ">
  <p:Enrollees>
    <p1:DateOfBirth>1959-03-03</p1:DateOfBirth>
    <p1:Gender>Male</p1:Gender>
    <p1:TobaccoLastUsedMonths>2</p1:TobaccoLastUsedMonths>
    <p1:Relation>SELF</p1:Relation>
    <p1:InHouseholdIndicator>true</p1:InHouseholdIndicator>
  </p:Enrollees>
  <p:Enrollees>
    <p1:DateOfBirth>1982-03-03</p1:DateOfBirth>
    <p1:Gender>Female</p1:Gender>
    <p1:TobaccoLastUsedMonths>2</p1:TobaccoLastUsedMonths>
    <p1:Relation>SPOUSE</p1:Relation>
    <p1:InHouseholdIndicator>true</p1:InHouseholdIndicator>
  </p:Enrollees>
  <p:Location>
    <p1:ZipCode>22901</p1:ZipCode>
    <p1:County>
      <p1:FipsCode>51003</p1:FipsCode>
      <p1:CountyName>ALBEMARLE</p1:CountyName>
      <p1:StateCode>VA</p1:StateCode>
    </p1:County>
  </p:Location>
  <p:InsuranceEffectiveDate>2014-10-01</p:InsuranceEffectiveDate>
  <p:Market>Individual</p:Market>
  <p:IsFilterAnalysisRequiredIndicator>false</p:IsFilterAnalysisRequiredIndicator>
  <p:PaginationInformation>
    <p1:PageNumber>1</p1:PageNumber>
    <p1:PageSize>20</p1:PageSize>
  </p:PaginationInformation>
  <p:SortOrder>
    <p1:SortField>BASE RATE</p1:SortField>
    <p1:SortDirection>ASC</p1:SortDirection>
  </p:SortOrder>

</p:PlanQuoteRequest>'

FWIW, I was able to reproduce the 503 "File not found" by POSTing the same request but with trailing characters after the url like https://api.finder.healthcare.gov/v3.0/getIFPPlanQuotesXYZ

And I discovered, by comparing your XML data string with mine, that the XML cannot contain tabs... that trips up their parser, I guess. — sameers, Nov 08 '14 at 06:47
Plus, I'll add that you can also just download the full dataset, as suggested on http://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/1537/using-the-api-from-healthcare-gov-to-access-healthcare-plan-data — sameers, Nov 09 '14 at 02:35
@ErikSchwartz that response only shows three plans, which does not match https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/22901/results/?age=40&smoker=&parent=&pregnant=&mec=&zip=51003&income=1000000&step=4&county=51003 ..do you have any idea why? thanks! — Anthony Damico, Nov 12 '14 at 16:31

Faraaz Khan · Answer 2 · 2014-11-14T22:06:25.823

Adding details to @erik's answer above. Version 3.0 of the API only seems to return plans for effective dates greater than or equal to 01/01/2015. To get plans for 2014, you must still use Version 2.0 of the API here: https://finder.healthcare.gov/#services/version_2_0 (and marked as deprecated). Also it seems the effective date cannot be more than 150 days in the future.

In response to the question about the plan data not matching what is on healthcare.gov, please note that this API only returns Private Plans that are NOT in the Marketplace. The website finder.healthcare.gov uses the same API and tries to explain that on the home page here: https://finder.healthcare.gov/

Edit: sdwarwick below just pointed to this: https://www.healthcare.gov/health-plan-information-2015/ which is where you will find plans that are in the Marketplace. Stand Alone Dental Plans from the Marketplace are here: https://www.healthcare.gov/dental-plan-information-2015/

Healthcare.gov's API Finder app returns "File not found"

2 Answers2