Wentzville Obamacare processing center to close, affecting 850

Jan. 12--A large Wentzville employer that is one of a handful of major Affordable Care Act processing facilities is closing, laying off hundreds of area workers.

Serco, a British-based company with U.S. headquarters in Northern Virginia, runs the processing facility in the old US Fidelis call center just east of the intersection of Interstate 64 and Interstate 70. Three years ago, it employed as many as 1,500. The closing of its Wentzville facility will affect about 850 employees.

The company won a $1.2 billion, 5-year contract in July 2013 to process applications for the Affordable Care Act, the national health care law passed in 2010. The Wentzville center was one of three the firm opened nationally to handle the deluge of people expected to sign up for health insurance. The others are in Kentucky and Arkansas.

That contract expires this summer, and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services wouldn't say whether it has been renewed or another firm has been contracted to handle Obamacare insurance applicants. CMS also wouldn't say if the other sites are closing.

The Wentzville Center opened in August 2013 and hired on hundreds of workers at wages between $14 and $27 an hour with 401(k) and health insurance benefits.

One of President Donald Trump's signature promises was to repeal Obamacare. While a full repeal stalled in Congress last year, the administration has found administrative ways within the federal bureaucracy to undermine the law. The administration cut advertising for health insurance signups, and ended subsidy payments to insurers authorized by the law.

The Wentzville facility has had its share of controversy. It prompted Congressional inquiries after reports surfaced that employees had so little to do in late 2013 and early 2014, the months after the health law's initial roll out, they were reading books and playing games. Later, the Post-Dispatch reported that the facility was forced to pay out 13,000 hours of overtime to keep up with applications. It later hired hundreds more staff.

"To maximize operational efficiency outside of open enrollment periods, Serco ... is scaling down their activities," CMS said in a statement to the Post-Dispatch. "The work that Serco does to support the Exchange is seasonal in nature, and is staffed to handle the demands of open enrollment periods. As has been done in previous years, we will continue to work with contractors to manage staffing levels throughout the year to meet consumer demand."

Open enrollment just ended for Obamacare. Despite a shortened sign-up period and cuts in the ad budget, about 8.7 million people enrolled, similar to the previous year's total and outperforming projections.

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