PROVIDENCE — HealthSource RI, the state-based Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange, reported a greater than 80 percent auto-renewal of 2017 enrollees and 6,000 calls since open enrollment for health insurance began Nov. 1.
The 80 percent represents all the 2017 enrollees who were eligible to sign up again, said Kyrie Perry, director of communications, marketing and outreach for HSRI. Last year, the exchange auto-renewed 73 percent, Perry said. That year’s renewals were burdened by difficulties with the state’s Unified Health Infrastructure Program, known as UHIP, which delayed applications for various social services last year, with many pending longer than federal regulations allowed.
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HSRI’s auto-renew program automatically enrolls eligible people in either their existing health plan, if it still exists in the exchange, or in a comparable health plan, Perry said.
The 2018 auto-renewal accounted for over 24,000 Rhode Island enrollees.
Anyone not eligible for auto-renewal, whose 2017 plan doesn’t have a comparable version in 2018, for instance, has until Dec. 23 to pick and pay for their plan for uninterrupted health insurance in Rhode Island starting January 1 (when the plan year ends), Perry said. Dec. 31 is the very last day to pick and pay for a 2018 plan, according to the HSRI website.
Perry said the federal enrollment deadline, set at Dec. 15 by the Health and Human Services Department by President Donald Trump, is much earlier than the 2016 deadline of Jan. 31. But, since Rhode Island is only one of 13 states with its own exchange, the federal deadline is aiding the effort to sign people up locally, since people seeing the earlier deadline are likely to rush to sign up sooner.
“They’re more likely to come in and purchase and pay for a plan earlier,” she said.
By the same token, she said, although the federal government has also undermined the enrollment process by failing to fund advertising for it and canceling the Cost Sharing Reduction payments that helped lower premiums, news coverage and word of mouth about those developments have resulted in a parallel sort of publicity about the health insurance system.
Perry noted HSRI has paid for their own ad campaign on Facebook, which she said has drawn about 9,000 visits to the state exchange’s website from desktops since open enrollment began and 3,000 mobile visitors.
“So those are pretty significant totals,” Perry said.
She also noted that the exchange is running a walk-in center at 401 Wampanoag Trail in East Providence for people who need an in-person assist with signing up for health care this year. The center is open Mon – Fri 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. Customers can schedule an appointment at the Walk-in Center by vising HSRI online, or by calling 1-844-602-3468.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
