The number of Tennesseans who selected a health insurance plan on the federally-run exchange doubled from the end of November, not including those who participated in the shopping frenzy this week, piquing interest about the rest of the enrollment period.
According to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 125,777 Tennesseans selected a plan as of Dec. 12, up from 62,922 as of Nov. 28.
This week has been a pivotal week for both those who want coverage and those in the health care industry. Tuesday was originally the deadline for getting a plan that starts Jan. 1 but due to unprecedented traffic, and online and phone wait times, the deadline was pushed out 48 hours.
The late evening extension, handed down at 7 p.m. Central, was unexpected. Federal officials reiterated the previous week that the enrollment season would not be extended beyond Jan. 31, and there would not be a special enrollment period around tax season.
“I think we were all surprised last night about the extension,” said Carla Raynor, senior vice president of strategic marketing for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. “It was a surprise and a delight.”
Monday’s traffic — seeing 160,000 users around 1 p.m. Eastern — led to people being placed in digital queues and enduring long hold times on the phone around midday. The activity, called unprecedented by federal officials, took people by surprise since the actual deadlines have been most feverish in the last two enrollment seasons.
The online system has worked well this year except for Monday, Raynor said.
“We were really overwhelmed by how many waited (until the deadline),” Raynor said. “Maybe we shouldn’t have been considering how many wait to file their taxes.”
To deal with the system issues, BCBST had people fill out paper applications in its shop at 100 Oaks Mall, which employees would file later when healthcare.gov was more stable. Larry Bailey, who was uninsured in 2015, drove from Smyrna Tuesday night to fill out an application when he couldn’t get through online.
Industry officials are curious to see the figures that reflect those who shopped on healthcare.gov and the call center on Dec. 14-15.
There was growth from the first to second year — jumping from 151,000 enrollees in 2014 to 231,000 in 2015 across the state — but health care and government officials would like to make deeper inroads in this cycle.
“Based on the numbers the Tennessee exchange saw, there is still a ways to go (to topping enrollment),” said Bill Melville, senior analyst for Decision Resources Group, a health care research and consulting firm in Nashville. “Right now the numbers look like they are going to be there as far as retaining people from last year.”
This open-enrollment season is a litmus test on how a consumer-driven market operates. The past two years have brought a spike in plan selections at the end of the enrollment period, but with the high traffic around this deadline, there is interest about how activity leading up to deadlines will look.
“There are still many Tennesseans who are experiencing this for the first time – educating themselves for the first time,” Raynor said. “You have to do continuous reminders and education because people are coming out of different scenarios all the time.”
Date: December 16, 2015