Health Care Reform

Open Enrollment — Week 4: December 6 – December 12, 2014


Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–December 15, 2014.

The following blog was posted at http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/blog/2014/12/open-enrollment-week-four.html

Nearly 2.5 million consumers selected plans since the beginning of Open Enrollment – more than one million in just the last week.  As expected, consumer interest in health coverage increased as we neared the December 15 deadline. This week’s report does not include the final three days before December’s deadline.

“I am pleased with the response to date on Open Enrollment, but we know we still have a lot of work to do between now and February 15.  People were ready to get covered and the vast majority are having a good consumer experience,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “As of December 12, about 2.5 million consumers selected plans through the federal marketplace and large numbers of new and renewing consumers continued to shop through the weekend. This shows that millions of Americans want access to affordable quality health insurance and they came to the Marketplace to find it.”

HHS will produce monthly reports that provide a detailed look at plan selection across the Federally Facilitated Marketplace and State-Based Marketplaces. In addition, CMS is releasing weekly snapshots of preliminary data. These snapshots do not include the consumers who visited, called, shopped or selected a plan through a State-Based Marketplace.

The weekly Open Enrollment snapshots for the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) provide point-in-time estimates for weekly data. These are preliminary numbers and could fluctuate based on consumers changing or canceling plans or having a change in status such as new job or marriage. The snapshots also include totals from the beginning of Open Enrollment. Note that data revisions may mean that the weekly totals do not sum to the cumulative numbers.

Definitions and details on the data are included in the glossary.

Federal Marketplace Snapshot

Week 4

Cumulative

Dec 6 – Dec 12

Nov 15 – Dec 12

Plan Selections

1,082,879

2,466,562

New consumers

47 percent

48 percent

Consumers renewing coverage

53 percent

52 percent

Applications Submitted

1,549,698

4,076,272

Call Center Volume

1,562,877

4,099,144

Average Call Center Wait Time

13 minutes 12 seconds

5 minutes 59 seconds

Calls with Spanish Speaking Representative

124,422

361,010

Average Wait for Spanish Speaking Rep

18 seconds

12 seconds

HealthCare.gov Users

3,742,146

10,882,935

CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users

117,289

348,760

Window Shopping HealthCare.gov Users

1,269,809

4,090,375

Window Shopping CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users

26,489

83,739

 

Consumers can shop and sign up for affordable health coverage that fits their health and financial needs any time between now and February 15, 2015. Most consumers who did not take action before the December 15 deadline will be automatically enrolled into their current plan or a plan with similar benefits.

Glossary

Plan Selections:  The weekly and cumulative metrics provide a preliminary total of those who have submitted an application and selected the plan that best fits their needs.  As noted previously, these numbers fluctuate based on consumers changing or canceling plans or having a change in status such as new job or marriage; changes for the entire open enrollment period are reflected in the most recent weekly and cumulative metrics.

To have their coverage effectuated, consumers need to pay their first month’s health plan premium. This release does not include effectuated enrollment.

All references to the Marketplace in this report refer to 35 states that are states that used the HealthCare.gov platform in both 2014 and 2015 and Oregon and Nevada, which are new to the FFM platform in 2015. Those states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

New Consumers:  New consumers are those consumers who are selecting a plan for the first time or whose plan selection in 2014 was terminated, because, for example, they failed to pay their premium or gained coverage through employer-sponsored insurance. In addition, because Oregon and Nevada consumers now use the Federally Facilitated Marketplace platform, they are considered new enrollments.

Consumers Renewing Coverage:  Consumers with 2014 effectuated enrollment who have actively submitted a 2015 application and selected a plan or, after December 15, have been auto-renewed.

Applications Submitted:  A consumer who has completed an application and submitted it. If determined eligible for Marketplace coverage, the consumer still needs to pick a health plan that best fits their financial and health needs and pay their premium to get covered. Because families can submit a single application, this figure tallies each person covered by an application. The weekly and cumulative metrics total the number of people who have submitted an application.

Call Center Volume:  The total number of calls received by the Federally-Facilitated Marketplace call center over the course of a week or from the start of Open Enrollment.

Calls with Spanish Speaking Representative:  The total number of calls received by the call center where consumers chose to speak with a Spanish-speaking representative. These calls are not included within the call center volume.

Average Call Center Wait Time: The average amount of time a consumer waited before reaching a customer service representative. The cumulative total averages wait time over the course of the extended time period.

HealthCare.gov or CuidadodeSalud.gov Users: The user metric totals how many unique users viewed or interacted with either  or  over the course of a specific date range. For cumulative totals, a separate report is run for the entire Open Enrollment period to minimize users being counted more than once during that longer range of time and to provide a more accurate estimate of unique users. Depending on an individual’s browser settings and browsing habits, a visitor may be counted as a unique user more than once. Note: in reporting from the last open enrollment period “users” was reported as “unique visitors”.

Window Shopping HealthCare.gov Users or CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users: The user metric totals how many unique users interacted with the window-shopping tool over the course of a specific date range. For cumulative totals, a separate report is run for the entire Open Enrollment period to minimize users being counted more than once during that longer range of time and to provide a more accurate estimate of unique users. Depending on an individual’s browser settings and browsing habits, a visitor may be counted as a unique user more than once. Users who window-shopped are also included in the total  or  user total. Note: in reporting from the last open enrollment period “users” was reported as “unique visitors”.

Source: hhs.gov


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