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November 14, 2012 at 08:23 AM
The California Health Benefit Exchange has efforts to set up health insurance exchange programs for individuals and small employers well under way.
The exchange agency is making, and implementing, detailed plans for setting up “Covered California” — a state-run, state-based exchange program for individuals and — a Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) exchange for small employers.
The exchange agency is working to set up a health insurance exchange program, or Web-based insurance supermarket, in time for the program to distribute coverage that will take effect Jan. 1, 2014.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) calls for states to set up exchanges for their residents, especially to help individuals and small groups use new tax credit systems to buy coverage. A California company – Word & Brown, Orange, Calif. – helped popularize the health insurance exchange concept by developing a large private health insurance exchange program.
The agency also has hired Accenture to set up the exchange enrollment system — the California Healthcare Eligibility, Enrollment & Retention System (CALHEERS), and it has started to post specific hiring and budget plans.
Juli Baker has told exchange managers in a written report, for example, that Covered California managers to expect to fill 850 people to do customer support.
Some of the workers who handle the initial open enrollment rush will be “intermittent workers,” Baker said.
