MNsure Extends Enrollment Deadline for January 1 Coverage to December 31
MNsure sent this bulletin at 12/19/2014 11:34 AM CST
December 19, 2014
MNSURE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MNsure Extends Enrollment Deadline for January 1 Coverage to December 31
Decision follows transfer of enrollment information to insurance carriers and aligns enrollment deadlines for January 1 coverage
ST. PAUL, Minn.—In an effort to provide more time for Minnesotans who qualify for financial help available only through MNsure, the organization today announced it would extend the enrollment deadline to December 31 for January 1 coverage.
Minnesotans must now enroll in coverage through MNsure by noon on Wednesday, December 31, to have their coverage effective on January 1, 2015. The change comes at a time of high interest in MNsure and as many health insurance companies recently extended their own enrollment deadlines for January 1 coverage.
Margot Sanger-Katz has a fascinating story today about the "woodworker" effect in non-expansion states. I've written about woodworkers many times before; the short version is, these are people who were already eligible for Medicaid even before/without the ACA expansion provisions, but who never actually enrolled in the program for any number of reasons. Their reasons could be personal (embarrassment/shame over taking a "handout"), it could be because they didn't know that they were eligible (the rules vary from state to state), it could be because the enrollment process is too confusing (again, not an easy process in some states).
The 51 states (including the District of Columbia) that provided enrollment data for October 2014 reported nearly 68.5 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. This enrollment count is point-in-time (on the last day of the month) and includes all enrollees in the Medicaid and CHIP programs who are receiving a comprehensive benefit package.
428,311 additional people were enrolled in October 2014 as compared to September 2014 in the 51 states that reported comparable September and August data.
(And yes, the "51 states" wording is CMS's, not mine)
Chalk up another 4,433 QHP eligibility determinations for MA yesterday. Assuming 60% of those have selected a plan, the cumulative total for 2015 should be up to around 61,800 people to date.
As of mid-April, Massachusetts had only enrolled a total of 31,695 people. That means that assuming I'm close, the Bay State should double their 2014 QHP enrollment by tomorrow.
In addition, their Medicaid enrollments are closing in quickly on the 100K mark (98,530), and should easily cross it tomorrow as well.
Exhibit A: I'm way behind on several projects from, you know, my day job.
Exhibit B: As you can see from The Spreadsheet, the enrollment data from every one of the state-based exchanges is current within the past week (WA is from 12/10, VT from 12/11, RI from 12/13 and all others are from the 14th, 15th or 16th).
Therefore, aside from the daily dashboard from Massachusetts (or if there's some huge ACA enrollment development), I'm taking the day off.
Hawaii's updates are particularly frustrating because they have a tendency to only give the cumulative plan selections to date, mixing together 2014 & 2015 numbers regardless of whether they've actually enrolled/re-enrolled for 2015 or not. Therefore, it's refreshing to see a (relatively) straightforward update out of the Aloha state:
The Hawaii Health Connector enrolled 3,500 people in its first month of open enrollment, which ended on Monday, the exchange confirmed Tuesday.
The state's online health insurance exchange saw more than an eleven-fold increase in enrollment in comparison to its first month of enrollment last year, when the just 300 signed up for health insurance on the Connector.
Of course, they couldn't help but mix numbers together later in the story:
...To date, roughly 13,500 residents have signed up for health insurance coverage that will begin on Jan 1.
Kissel noted that the Connector has also connected 50,000 to the expanded Medicaid program, which came in with the Affordable Care Act at no cost to the state.
OK, that's more like it...about 500 people in DC are being contacted by exchange personnel regarding technical issues, but over 2,600 made it through under the wire:
D.C. Health Exchange Director Mila Kofman said as many as 500 applications were left in limbo at 9 p.m. Monday, the cutoff for selecting coverage that would take effect on Jan. 1.
Kofman said 2,631 people enrolled successfully.
Employees at the exchange, known as D.C. Health Link, will spend the next several days contacting each applicant by phone or e-mail to walk them through a follow-up process to ensure unfinished applications are processed and those residents can begin receiving coverage beginning next month as planned, Kofman said.
DC had around 10,000 enrollees to start with; presumably the 2,631 figure is a mix of renewals and new additions.
A nice, no-BS, pretty comprehensive enrollment update out of Colorado:
DENVER, CO – In the first month of Open Enrollment, 136,315 Coloradans enrolled in healthcare coverage for 2015, either in Medicaid, Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+) or in commercial health insurance purchased through the state health insurance Marketplace, according to new data released today by Connect for Health Colorado® and the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
“These initial sign-ups during this first month were consistent with our projections and culminated with a single-day record of 12,600 enrollments on December 15th,” said Connect for Health Colorado Interim CEO Gary Drews. “It’s also important to remember that it’s not too late for people to purchase health insurance for 2015. Open enrollment continues until February 15th.”
Dec. 15 was the deadline for individuals and families to select plans for coverage to begin on Jan. 1. Connect for Health Colorado will continue working with those who started their application by Dec. 15 to help finish it so they can be covered by the New Year. Customers also have to take the last step to ensure their coverage: make the first payment on time.
Just over a month into open enrollment at HealthSource RI, nearly half of the people who purchased health insurance in 2014 have renewed coverage for another year, the state-based exchange created under the Affordable Care Act announced Wednesday.
Through Dec. 13, 9,825 people, or 48 percent had renewed coverage, with close to 60 percent opting to switch to different plans.
Another 2,522 have signed up for health insurance for the first time, bringing total enrollment to 12,347.
The numbers in RI are small, but there's some important data points here:
Massachusetts continues to chug along, with another 4.243 QHP eligibility determinations; assuming a minimum 60% plan selection rate, that should add another 2,500 or so to the total, for around 59K QHPs to date.
Meanwhile, Medicaid (MassHealth) enrollments have broken 94,000:
