Washington Open Enrollment Tops 159,556 Individual Exchange Enrollees – By David Peters for State of Reform
Washington open enrollment topped 159,556 individual marketplace enrollees, according to the latest open enrollment report provided by the Washington State Health Benefit Exchange (WAHBE). These figures are effective as of February 15, 2015.
Of the 159,556 individual marketplace enrollees: 93,136 were renewals and 66,420 were new. Over 9,786 returning users moved to Medicaid.
Small business marketplace enrollment was underwhelming with just 290 enrolled lives among 57 groups.
Pam McEwan, WAHBE Chief of Staff, went on to detail insights from the recent open enrollment period:
- Smoother experience reported by customers, in-person assisters, and brokers.
- Timing produced several challenges, including holidays and confusion over enrollment covering the same calendar year.
- Re-enrollment process marked for improvement for the open enrollment period for 2016 coverage.
- Medicaid continues to grow.
- Partners such as the Federal Hub and Eligibility Service posed significant challenges with Healthplanfinder site performance.
A special enrollment period was created from February 17 through April 17. This period exists for users who encountered technical difficulties using WABHE’s Healthplanfinder or received inaccurate instructions or communications surrounding enrollment.
This year’s IRS 1095-A forms are also being sent out. Over 130,000 forms mailed and in Healthplanfinder’s user “dashboard” by February 2. However, 7,000 forms were held back for review, due to data issues, corrections, and more. As such, the majority of these delayed forms were mailed by February 16.
