Monthly exchange plan activity soars

The new public health insurance exchanges brought in completed applications for many more people in November than in October.

Completed application growth was stronger for state-based exchanges than for the exchanges run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The raw number of people who enrolled in commercial “qualified health plans” (QHPs) through the public exchanges also grew sharply, both at state-based exchanges and at HHS exchanges.

But the percentage of applicants who were found to be eligible to sign up for QHPs and had actually enrolled in QHPs was much higher at the state-based exchanges than at the HHS exchanges.

HHS, the federal department overseeing the agencies that run the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange program, released cumulative individual exchange activity figures for Oct. 1 through Nov. 30 today.

The exchange enrollment period began Oct. 1 and is currently set to end March 31. Current rules call for applicants who want individual coverage to start Jan. 1 to make their first premium payments by Dec. 23.

HHS is using whether QHP applicants have chosen health plans, not whether they have paid their premiums, as the indicator for QHP enrollment.

A comparison of the new figures with November activity figures shows that all state-based and HHS exchanges combined have received applications for a total of 3.7 million people, up from 1.5 million people a month earlier.

The exchanges received applications for about 2.2 million people in November, up 45 percent from the October count.