On November 15th, the Covered California open enrollment period kicked off. After website glitches and high call volumes last year, the Covered California team had new goals and hopes for this year. One of the primary goals was to decrease call abandonment in the customer call center.
Last year, three out of every ten calls were dropped so the exchange had a goal of dropping less than 3% of calls. However, the abandon rate is still something they are struggling with as consumers seek answers to password resets, re-enrollment questions, ongoing open enrollment inquiries, and changes in their Medi-Cal status. Covered California Director Peter Lee is encouraging individuals and families to call during low volume times (rather than Monday mornings when everyone is busy).
Still, open enrollment for 2015 has already surpassed the 2014 numbers at this time last year. Currently, there are 11,357 people enrolled in Covered California only 4 days after the exchange opened up. Last year, it took 15 days to reach just 11,000 enrollments.
Covered California is also rating plans this year to help simplify the process of selecting a plan for applicants. The rating is a star scale (four being the greatest) based on plan quality and can be found in the “Plan Preview” section.
Covered California Quality Ratings Include:
- Service
- Access to Care
- Preventive Care
- Clinical Care
- Ability for patients to get an appointment
- Ability to get patient questions answered
- Follow up care
Kaiser Permanente is one of the plans with 4 stars and is currently places in the top 25% of all plans. One star plans represent the bottom 25% of plans.
Do you have questions regarding enrollment or the new rating system? Give us a call to learn more.