After call center snag, feds push Obamacare enrollment deadline to early Wednesday

Dec. 16--A rush to enroll in health insurance plans on the Obamacare marketplace before last weekend's deadline resulted in an undisclosed number of consumers being told to leave their names for callbacks instead, so the federal government is pushing back the deadline to apply for coverage.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which announced the extension on Monday afternoon, said it was making the change "in an abundance of caution, to accommodate consumers who attempted to enroll in coverage during the final hours of open enrollment but who may have experienced issues." Those seeking to apply for a plan on the marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act now have until Wednesday at 3 a.m. EST to enroll for coverage.

"While the website and the call center remained open for business on December 15 with over half a million consumers enrolling throughout the day, some consumers were asked to leave their name at the call center," said a CMS spokesperson. "Those consumers who have already left their contact information at the call center do not need to come back and apply during this extension because a call center representative will follow up with them later this week."

As in past years, CMS saw an uptick in the volume of consumers using healthcare.gov and contacting the call center as the Dec. 15 deadline approached. The agency stressed that all consumers who left their contact information will be able to enroll in a plan that starts Jan. 1. A spokesperson for CMS said the agency does not currently have data on how many consumers were asked to leave their contact information.

Doug Bartel, a spokesperson for Florida Blue -- which says it has helped enroll hundreds of thousands of people in the last few weeks -- said the insurer did not experience any significant issues with enrollment, either caused by the call center volume or other issues.

"Open enrollment has gone smoothly for Florida Blue, including these last few very busy days, and we support any effort to get more people enrolled for 2020 health coverage," Bartel said in a statement.

As it has for the past several years, Florida has led the nation in Obamacare enrollment, which remains popular in the state despite efforts by the Trump administration to weaken the law, such as cuts to navigators who help Floridians enroll for ACA coverage and marketing efforts.

Jodi Ray, project director of Florida Covering Kids & Families, a navigator group, said they witnessed a surge in traffic of people signing up for plans that may have been caused by technical glitches experienced throughout the enrollment period.

"It's not the first year they've [extended] it," Ray said. "I'm not terribly shocked by it."

Ray said that consumers experienced issues with identity verification and endless loops on healthcare.gov that led people to use the call centers in frustration.

"That might have contributed to driving people toward the end of open enrollment and still needing to apply," Ray said. "That could then have an effect on the call center traffic."

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