The backlog of life changes waiting to be recorded by Vermont Health Connect remains above 3,000, according to the Department of Vermont Health Access.
The backlog, which the department terms an “inventory,” was at 3,236 on Tuesday. The number has decreased by about 500 since April 4, when the backlog was 3,739.
“It’s still continuing down from the right direction,” said Sean Sheehan, the spokesperson for Vermont Health Connect. “There will always be some inventory. We get about 150 a day, or 4,000 a month.”
Sheehan said the Vermont Health Connect operations team has been focusing on training call center personnel to handle customer changes while they’re on the phone so that their change of circumstance request doesn’t get added to the queue.
“Phrases like backlog make it seem like a static bunch of changes that aren’t being addressed,” Sheehan said. “It’s a living work queue, or a living, flowing inventory. I think people get a different impression than when we hear backlog.”
He said a sustainable queue of change of circumstance requests is in the 2,500 to 3,000 range.
