Health insurance enrollments trickle in

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.mini storageOct. 09--A week after the launch of the federal Affordable Care Act marketplaces, it's still not clear how many Virginians have been able to successfully enroll in a health plan.A spokesman for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said the company has begun to receive federal confirmation of people enrolled in its HealthKeepers plans offered through the Virginia marketplace.But one of the key organizations employing workers to help people enroll in plans didn't have any hard numbers."It has been difficult to complete applications online at HealthCare.gov. So we are taking this opportunity to take a deep breath (and) remind people about the opportunities to enroll over the next six months," said Jill Hanken, an at-Website delaysQuestionable design blamed for health-site woes. Page A7torney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center, which received a federal grant to hire workers called navigators to do outreach and help people enroll in plans."Our navigators are taking appointments so people can come in next week when hopefully things will be smoothed out and they can get the excellent application assistance they deserve," Hanken said Tuesday during a telephone conference call arranged by the advocacy group Families USA."Our navigators ... are also helping people use the federal call center to get applications filed rather than doing it through the online system. And many of our navigators have also provided paper applications to individuals who are really anxious just to get the process started," Hanken said.Hanken said she did not have any Virginia enrollment numbers."I can't give you more data at this point about numbers, but I will say we've got a very enthusiastic bunch of navigators who are out in the community every day, attending events, providing education. We really are eager to be able to enroll people in a streamlined fashion as soon as possible," she said.The enrollment website, HealthCare.gov, got off to a rocky start Oct. 1, with many people having to abandon efforts to create accounts that would allow them to apply for federal subsidies and see what plans are offered in the health insurance marketplaces, also called exchanges.Federal officials initially said the number of visitors overwhelmed the system but have since taken the website down periodically, usually overnight, to work on problems. Server 迷你倉apacity and software upgrades are among the issues addressed.While federal health officials have provided estimates of numbers of people visiting Health- Care.gov website, they have not released enrollment figures.The federal government is running the marketplaces in the majority of states, while some states, including California and Kentucky, are operating their own.Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Optima Health and Aetna are among the companies offering plans on the Virginia marketplace, which is federally run.Anthem spokesman Scott Golden said the company has received enrollment confirmations, but he would not say how many."While it's too soon to provide enrollment details, we have seen unprecedented call volumes and heavy Web traffic for our exchange plans that is consistent with the experience reported by some state exchanges," he said.A spokeswoman for Aetna, which also operates Coventry plans on the marketplace, said the company is not releasing any data at this time about how many people have tried to enroll in Coventry or Aetna plans.Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack said his group has launched a website, MyCoverage Story.org, to showcase stories of people successfully enrolling. Tuesday's telephone briefing also included representatives of organizations in Kentucky and Michigan who shared their experiences with open enrollment.Barbara Gordon, director of social services at Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency, said her agency won a grant to offer in-person assistance in a 16-county region of the state."Since open enrollment began, and this is just in our region ... we believe that we have enrolled right around 181 individuals in health insurance and have follow-up calls and appointments with 175 individuals," Gordon said. Statewide, she said, an estimated 7,000 people enrolled in health plans.Kentucky's exchange is state- run, overseen by the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. Gordon said the enrollment initiative is called "kynect" and the enrollment assister "kynectors," a play on the words connect and connector."It's been every effective in helping people to engage," Gordon said.TLsmith@timesdispatch.com(804) 649-6572Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) Visit the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) at .timesdispatch.com Distributed by MCT Information Services文件倉