[O]pen enrollment for Vermont Health Connect officially ended Saturday, but state officials are still working this week to accommodate those who weren’t able to sign up for health insurance before the deadline.
Officials say a surge in consumer inquiries last week – due in part to questions about increased health care subsidies available in 2019 – led to more volume than the state and its contracted call center could handle.
So the Department of Vermont Health Access says anyone who wasn’t able to get help with their health insurance enrollment prior to Dec. 15 can still sign up this week and will be covered starting Jan. 1. The number is 855-899-9600, or online at VermontHealthConnect.gov.
“The most important thing is, we want to make sure we get people in,” said Sean Sheehan, deputy director for the department’s health access eligibility and enrollment unit.
Open enrollment for 2019 plans on the state’s health insurance exchange began Nov. 1. Prior to that, officials had urged customers to take a close look at their insurance coverage rather than auto-renewing their policies.
That’s because a complex series of federal and state policy changes made significantly larger subsidies available for many individuals and families. In some cases, officials said, Vermonters will be able to get better coverage for less money.
On the other hand, some people who had silver-level plans in 2018 and don’t qualify for subsidies would need to switch to a new, off-exchange version of those plans in order to avoid big price increases.
State officials urged consumers to use an online plan comparison tool to investigate their options. And Vermonters responded in droves, logging about 38,000 sessions from the time the comparison tool launched in late October – an increase of more than 60 percent over last year.
Sheehan said there were more than 20,000 people used the tool this year. That’s up 38 percent from 2017, and it’s more than the number of households that get insurance through the exchange.
Users also were spending more time on the website. The average session was nearly 8 minutes, up from just over 6 minutes a year ago. “We found people were comparison shopping more, and spending more time doing so,” Sheehan said.
The department does not yet have final numbers for the open enrollment period, but Sheehan said there were more people switching plans this year and more inquiries in general. That exacerbated the typical deadline crunch last week and led to long wait times for callers despite extended support center hours, officials said.
Sheehan said there was more time spent “helping people understand and compare plans … you get more questions and confusion around which plans are better.”
Many customers who couldn’t get through elected to request a return call, but Sheehan said that led to a backlog of more than 1,000 people on the call-back list.
The state doesn’t have authority in this case to formally extend the open enrollment period. But officials have administrative flexibility, due to the volume of customer inquiries, to continue enrolling Vermonters.
Sheehan said customer-support personnel are “working overtime” this week to return calls from those who tried to get through. That work could extend into next week, he said.
Vermonters also can reach out this week via the Vermont Health Connect site or by phone from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Those who are trying to enroll don’t need to provide any documentation of a previous, unsuccessful enrollment attempt.
“As long as you get in touch, we will keep working to get you into your preferred plan for Jan. 1,” officials wrote in a message posted on the Vermont Health Connect home page.
The Vermont Health Care Advocate’s office was “swamped” with inquiries “about the challenges of getting through (to Vermont Health Connect), either on the phone or online,” said Mike Fisher, the state’s chief advocate.
“We’ve heard from many people who are really frustrated with a system that was overburdened and at times not working very well for them,” Fisher said. “I appreciate that it’s really hard. People wait until the last minute. I also think it’s pretty predictable.”
At the same time, Fisher said he recognizes that health care policy changes helped spur more traffic during open enrollment this year.
“That’s a great thing that so many people checked in and called,” he said. “It’s heartening. It’s what we asked people to do.”
