N.Y. exchange has 12,000 broker newsletter subscribers

Managers of New York state’s state-based Affordable Care Act public exchange have published a bit of potentially positive data: Agents and brokers still want to read about it.

The Albany-based New York State of Health exchange started a new email newsletter for brokers in August.

The newsletter already has about 12,000 brokers on the subscriber list, and about 1,450 of the brokers who received the August issue actually opened it. Those brokers opened the issue a total of 3,968 times, giving the newsletter a 32 percent open rate, according to a new exchange broker webinar slidedeck.

New York State of Health had relationships with 5,908 agents and brokers during the individual major medical open enrollment period for 2016, up from 5,239 for the 2015 open enrollment period.

Agents and brokers helped about 17 percent of the 271,964 people who enrolled in exchange plan coverage through New York State of Health for 2016. Producers helped about 30 percent of the exchange plan enrollees who signed up for coverage through some channel other than the New York State of Health enrollment website.

Related: HealthCare.gov is seeking vendors to train agents for 2018

New York State of Health serves the residents of New York City, which is one of the biggest cities in the world. It all serves midsize cities such as Rochester, N.Y., and many rural communities. Many of the communities in the western part of the state are closer to Cleveland, Ohio, than they are to the Atlantic Ocean.

The open enrollment period for 2017 started Nov. 1 and is set to end Jan. 31.