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Paid Delaware exchange enrollment under 1,000

By Randall Chase

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DOVER, Del. (AP) — Fewer than 1,000 Delaware residents have enrolled in the state’s new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) health insurance exchange plans, but officials said Monday that the enrollment process is improving.

Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf told the state health care commission that 793 Delawareans had chosen an insurance plan under PPACA as of Dec. 12 and had paid the first month’s premium. The announcement marks the first time officials have said how many Delawareans have actually paid for exchange coverage.

Last week, federal officials reported 431 enrollees in Delaware as of Nov. 30. That figure included people who had not paid their first premiums.

Landgraf said the new enrollment number reflects “positive momentum.” Nevertheless, the number of enrollees still represents less than 2.5 percent of the 35,000 Delawareans that officials have said they hope to enroll.

“This is a critical time relative to enrollment in the Delaware health insurance marketplace,” Landgraf acknowledged, noting a Dec. 23 deadline for enrolling for coverage effective Jan. 1. Insurance carriers are required by federal officials to accept initial premium payments through Dec. 31 for coverage starting Jan. 1, she added.

Landgraf said many Delawareans have enrolled on their own after consulting with one of four community organizations hired with $4 million in public funds to teach people about PPACA and help them enroll for coverage. Landgraf was unable to say how many enrollments were reported by those “marketplace guide” organizations, a number that officials have been reluctant to provide, despite weekly meetings with those organizations. The most recent numbers provided by state officials showed only four enrollments reported by the marketplace guide organizations.

Working with those organizations, officials plan a “dramatic push” of outreach activities over the next week to help people enroll by Dec. 23, said Landgraf, who expects enrollments to spike in late March just before open enrollment ends.

Meanwhile, officials are trying to determine how many Delawareans who applied for insurance coverage under PPACA were identified as eligible for Medicaid even though their household incomes exceed the threshold.

While citing several technical improvements to the HealthCare.gov federal exchange enrollment website, Landgraf said problems remain. Those problems include incorrect Medicaid eligibility determinations and insurers getting incorrect or incomplete information from HealthCare.gov. Landgraf said the error rate for the latter has been reduced from about one in four cases to one in 10.

Officials said the federal website has identified 2,950 Delawareans as potentially eligible for Medicaid. But that number includes duplications, and it’s unclear how many incorrect eligibility determinations have been made. State officials are working to identify the Delawareans with incorrect Medicaid eligibility determinations and to refer them back to the exchange to apply for private insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, as the March enrollment deadline approaches, Delaware officials are planning various marketing activities aimed at key target populations, including the Hispanic community and people ages 18 to 29.

Insurance premiums paid by healthy young people who aren’t likely to rack up large medical bills are a key financial underpinning of PPACA, but Landgraf said she is still awaiting demographic data on Delaware enrollees to determine whether young people are enrolling.

While working to enroll people in Delaware’s exchange, officials reported last month that some 12,000 Delawareans had received notices that their current insurance policies would be canceled because they didn’t meet PPACA criteria. Following President Barack Obama’s lead, Delaware insurance officials subsequently reached agreements with carriers to offer early renewals for current policies whose coverage was to end before March 31.

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