Open Enrollment Week 7: December 27, 2014 – January 2, 2015

Posted January 7, 2015

Since Open Enrollment began on November 15, nearly 6.6 million consumers selected a plan or were automatically re-enrolled in the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM). The Week 7 snapshot includes the New Year’s holiday; consumers continued to shop and select the plan that best meets their financial or health needs.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, nearly 6.6 million Americans have access to quality, affordable health coverage for 2015 through the Federally Facilitated Health Insurance Marketplace. As we turn to the New Year, our focus is on helping every individual who is interested in quality, affordable health insurance to understand their options and to get covered,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “For coverage starting on February 1, it is important for people to sign-up now ahead of the January 15 deadline.”

HHS produces more detailed reports that look at plan selection across the Federally Facilitated Marketplace and State-Based Marketplaces on a monthly basis. The first Open Enrollment monthly report was released on December 30. Weekly snapshots do not include the consumers who visited, called, shopped or selected a plan through a State-Based Marketplace.

The Open Enrollment snapshots for the Federally Facilitated Marketplace provide point-in-time estimates for weekly data. These are preliminary numbers and could fluctuate based on consumers changing or canceling plans or having a change in status such as new job or marriage. The snapshots also include totals from the beginning of the 2015 Open Enrollment period, which started November 15, 2014. Note that data revisions may mean that the weekly totals do not sum to the cumulative numbers.

Definitions and details on the data are included in the glossary.

Consumers can shop and sign up for affordable health coverage that fits their health and financial needs any time between now and February 15, 2015. If consumers who were automatically re-enrolled decide in the coming weeks that a better plan exists for their family, they can make that change at any time before the end of Open Enrollment on February 15.

Glossary

Plan Selections:  The weekly and cumulative metrics provide a preliminary total of those who have submitted an application and selected the plan that best fits their needs. In addition, totals now include those consumers who were automatically re-enrolled into their current plan or a plan with similar benefits. As noted previously, these numbers fluctuate based on consumers changing or canceling plans or having a change in status such as a new job or marriage; changes for the entire open enrollment period are reflected in the most recent weekly and cumulative metrics.

To have their coverage effectuated, consumers need to pay their first month’s health plan premium. This release does not include effectuated enrollment.

All references to the Marketplace in this report refer to 35 states that are states that used the HealthCare.gov platform in both 2014 and 2015 and Oregon and Nevada, which are new to the FFM platform in 2015. Those states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Applications Submitted:  A consumer who has completed an application and submitted it or who through the automatic enrollment process had an application submitted to the Federally Facilitated Marketplace. If determined eligible for Marketplace coverage, the consumer still needs to pick a health plan that best fits their financial and health needs and pay their premium to get covered. Because families can submit a single application, this figure tallies each person covered by an application. The weekly and cumulative metrics total the number of people who have submitted an application.

Call Center Volume:  The total number of calls received by the Federally-Facilitated Marketplace call center over the course of a week or from the start of Open Enrollment.

Calls with Spanish Speaking Representative:  The total number of calls received by the call center where consumers chose to speak with a Spanish-speaking representative. These calls are not included within the call center volume.

Average Call Center Wait Time: The average amount of time a consumer waited before reaching a customer service representative. The cumulative total averages wait time over the course of the extended time period.

HealthCare.gov or CuidadodeSalud.gov Users: The user metric totals how many unique users viewed or interacted with either HealthCare.gov or CuidadodeSalud.gov over the course of a specific date range. For cumulative totals, a separate report is run for the entire Open Enrollment period to minimize users being counted more than once during that longer range of time and to provide a more accurate estimate of unique users. Depending on an individual’s browser settings and browsing habits, a visitor may be counted as a unique user more than once. Note: in reporting from the last open enrollment period “users” was reported as “unique visitors”.

Window Shopping HealthCare.gov Users or CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users: The user metric totals how many unique users interacted with the window-shopping tool over the course of a specific date range. For cumulative totals, a separate report is run for the entire Open Enrollment period to minimize users being counted more than once during that longer range of time and to provide a more accurate estimate of unique users. Depending on an individual’s browser settings and browsing habits, a visitor may be counted as a unique user more than once. Users who window-shopped are also included in the total HealthCare.gov or CuidadodeSalud.gov user total. Note: in reporting from the last open enrollment period “users” was reported as “unique visitors”.

* The weekly total for calls with a Spanish speaking representative for December 20-26 is 38,131, not 28,131 as it was listed in the Week 6 snapshot. Cumulative totals have been adjusted to note the 10,000 additional calls received.

Source URL http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/blog/2015/01/open-enrollment-week-seven.html#ftnref1