Federal policy that agents said hindered ACA health enrollments is rescinded

Following an outcry from health insurance agents and the associations that represent them, a new federal policy that agents said would hinder their ability to enroll people in the federal health insurance marketplace has been rescinded.

The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight has rescinded the 30-minute login revalidation guidance for federal marketplace enrollments.

The policy required agents and brokers to reconnect their online federally facilitated marketplace account credentials after just 30 minutes of inactivity.

Agent groups said that as a result of this policy, their members experienced a number of problems in enrolling people in coverage online.

Among the issues:

• Applications are timing out mid-enrollment, forcing brokers to restart from the beginning and, in some cases, causing lost enrollments.
• Brokers are required to re-enter CMS Enterprise Portal credentials multiple times per day, creating excessive friction. This challenge will be most disruptive during peak open enrollment traffic.
• Brokers report that clients with longer consultations cannot complete an application within the 30-minute window, which will be especially problematic during open enrollment when consumers often need additional explanations and plan comparisons.
• HealthSherpa and other enhanced direct enrollment partners report that agents are being incorrectly marked as inactive by CMS, despite actively working within their platforms. This is because many application programming interface calls, such as those for quoting and system interactions related to agency management, are not counted as activity. Only actions such as fetching consumer accounts or applications are logged, triggering unnecessary reconnection prompts.

Health brokers faced disruptions

When this guidance was introduced, it immediately caused disruptions: brokers were timed out mid-application, clients faced delays, and enrollments were put at risk.

“We thank CCIIO for listening to the concerns of brokers and consumers and for acting quickly to remove this barrier before open enrollment,” the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals said in a statement today. “This decision restores a smoother, more reliable process at a critical time of year.

“This is a clear win for NABIP members and the millions of Americans they serve. Brokers facilitate nearly 80% of ACA marketplace enrollments.”

Health Agents for America also spoke out against the policy, with president and CEO Ronnell Nolan telling InsuranceNewsNet it puts another burden on agents and brokers.

In addition, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors said the policy “could unintentionally harm consumer access to health insurance coverage and impede the ability of licensed insurance professionals to effectively serve their clients.”

Representatives of the CMS were not immediately available for comment.

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Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at susan.rupe@innfeedback.com.