Year later, Fidelis Care office busy

Dec. 16--In the past year, more than 5,000 visitors have walked into the office of Fidelis Care at 209 Elizabeth St. in Utica.

The office for the nonprofit health plan opened last December.

"We looked at where Fidelis can do the most good and where we had the best opportunity to serve our members," said Tom Julian, director of marketing. "And Oneida County has always been one of our strongest areas, so we decided to place the community office in close proximity to the (county) Department of Social Services, and it just so happens that it's close to the bus depot there, which is an added bonus for us."

That foot traffic has included people coming in to sign up for health plans -- either Fidelis plans or others on the state exchange -- or for customer service queries, such as finding a doctor or getting a new ID card, Julian said.

Fidelis is the largest Medicaid managed care organization in the state, but it also offers Child Health Plus coverage, the state's essential plan, Medicare plans and plans on the state health plan exchange in all 62 counties in New York.

Despite all the talk of repealing the Affordable Care Act in Washington, D.C., Fidelis' Utica office has seen a 15 percent increase in people coming in for help enrolling in health plans through the state exchange and in people signing up for Fidelis plans, Julian said.

"New York has done a very good job of telling people about the open enrollment period and telling people why it's important to get health insurance," Julian said.

Friday was the deadline to sign up through the exchange for coverage beginning Jan. 1, but open enrollment runs through the end of January. Coverage will start Feb. 1 for enrollments through Jan.15 and on March 1 for later enrollments.

Not only are area residents continuing to sign up for health plans through the state exchange, they seem to understand their options, Julian said.

"Since the beginning of the Affordable Care Act, we're finding that the level of awareness has increased dramatically," he said. "People do generally have knowledge of what they do qualify for or what they expect to quality for."

Contact reporter Amy Neff Roth at 315-792-5166 or follow her on Twitter (@OD_Roth)

___

(c)2017 Observer-Dispatch, Utica, N.Y.

Visit Observer-Dispatch, Utica, N.Y. at www.uticaod.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.