Covered California Has Backlog Of 25K Requests
SACRAMENTO (AP) — California's health insurance exchange said Monday that it has a backlog of 25,000 paper applications that must be processed by Dec. 23 for the applicants to get health insurance starting in the New Year, a daunting process that threatens to leave some people who applied for insurance weeks ago without coverage.
The applications came from individuals, insurance agents and health exchange agents who were unable to access the online portal in the first few days after the exchange opened on Oct. 1, said Roy Kennedy, a spokesman for Covered California, the agency that runs the health exchange. He said the agency has been working to process the applications since then.
"We've added additional staff and redirected existing staff to input all the paper applications, so we believe that everyone who properly filled out the application, they will have health insurance on Jan. 1," Kennedy said.
But for people who enrolled through an insurance agent, those workers are only entering basic information such as the applicants' names and the names of the insurance agents, said Neil Crosby, a spokesman for the California Association of Health Underwriters. He said agents are now being alerted to check the Covered California site several times a day to see whether any of their clients' applications need to be added.
He said the association only learned of the backlog last week.
"My guess is a lot of the people who submitted their applications, if not the majority of them, thought that they were enrolled. They're probably booking appointments to get care," Crosby said. "And with a backlog of 25,000 applications, I'm not sure, even if there were thousands of people inputting information, if it could all be done in time to get these people coverage for the Jan. 1 date."
Entering the data takes about 45 minutes per application, Kennedy said.
After that, insurance companies must be notified that their plans have been selected, bill the customers and receive payment by Jan. 1 for coverage to start in the New Year, a span that includes Christmas Day, a federal and state holiday.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
