Maryland

Wow!! Impressive!!

Enrollments thru 12/15: 28,270 new + 121,495 active & passive renewals = 149,765. + Medicaid since 11/1 = #QuarterMillionMarylanders Covered

— MD Health Connection (@MarylandConnect) December 17, 2015

As I noted last month, according to the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange's October board meeting slideshow, their official projection for OE3 QHP enrollment is...150,000 people.

In other words, like Massachusetts, Maryland has already hit the target for the 2016 Open Enrollment just halfway through the period. The difference is that Massachusetts never really issued their own formal target (well, OK, technically Maryland needs 235 more people...)

Sometime this week I'm expecting CMS to release a 2015 Q3 Effectuated QHP report showing how many people were still enrolled in (and paying for) ACA exchange policies as of September 30, 2015.

As you'll recall, for 2014 the flow was:

For 2015, the flow so far has been:

In addition to the big HC.gov Week 4 Snapshot released about an hour ago, the Maryland exchange has also updated their numbers:

With two weeks to go before the Dec. 15 deadline for full 2016 health coverage, 31,740 people have enrolled in private health plans through Maryland Health Connection as of Dec. 1.

About 71 percent, or 22,477, were enrolled in silver plans, which provide savings in the form of advance premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions for those eligible to lower their cost..

In total, 139,244Marylanders have enrolled in coverage through the state’s health insurance marketplace since open enrollment began on Nov. 1. That includes 107,504 enrolled in Medicaid, which accepts applicants year-round.

Also, 8,880 individuals have enrolled in dental plans which are available for the first time through MarylandHealthConnection.gov for 2016. Of those, 4,022 people enrolled in dental along with a qualified health plan (QHP), 2,756 enrolled in dental along with Medicaid and 2,102 enrolled in a stand-alone dental plan.

The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange has released a new updated tally:

Nearly 25,000 people have enrolled in private qualified health plans (QHP) through Maryland Health Connection for 2016.

As of Nov. 23, 19,675 Marylanders had enrolled in private coverage with some or most of their premium costs next year to be offset by advance tax credits. Another 5,310 enrolled in qualified health plans without tax credits. Nearly 72 percent, or 17,960, were enrolled in SIlver plans.

That's 24,985 QHPs total in 23 days, or 1,086 per day.

In addition, 1,708 people have enrolled in stand-alone dental plans and 5,235 more have enrolled in dental along with health coverage for a total of 6,943 with dental coverage next year.

Also, 87,941 were enrolled in Medicaid since Nov. 1 through Maryland Health Connection.

Busy Day today! From the Maryland Health Connection:

More than 57,000 people enrolled in health coverage through MarylandHealthConnection.gov during the first nine days of 2016 open enrollment, more than double the enrollment traffic during a comparable span a year ago.

Of the 57,213 who enrolled from Nov. 1 through Nov. 9, 10,867 were in private qualified health plans; 45,402 were in Medicaid and 944 were in stand-alone dental plans. The large Medicaid total included previous Medicaid enrollees who were in Maryland's former legacy system and were "redetermined" into the new web-based system. 

Wow!

Through yesterday, 8537 people have already enrolled in private health plan coverage for 2016 at https://t.co/GpASXcJbQN Is it your turn?

— MD Health Connection (@MarylandConnect) November 4, 2015

And https://t.co/GpASXcJbQN now offers dental coverage for 2016 too. 1705 Marylanders enrolled in dental through yesterday. Makes us smile!

— MD Health Connection (@MarylandConnect) November 4, 2015

Just to be certain that the 8,537 figure doesn't include Medicaid or the dental figure mixed in with it, I asked and they confirmed:

@charles_gaba Correct. That's all QHP. Dental's in the other tweet.

— MD Health Connection (@MarylandConnect) November 4, 2015

Boy, that was fast! From today's Baltimore Sun:

The start of open enrollment on the state's online marketplace for health insurance went smoothly Sunday, officials said, with almost 780 people signing up by late afternoon and many others calling for information or meeting in person with professional advisers.

The Maryland health exchange launched free of the technical problems that disrupted enrollment in the first enrollment season beginning in the fall of 2013.

Performance improved in 2014. Consumers this time were promised a user-friendly website, a simpler application and better access to knowledgeable brokers to help them choose plans, exchange officials said.

Those moves were expected to help the state reach a goal of signing up 150,000 people in private plans, up from 115,000 last year.

"It was a good first day," said Andrew Ratner, exchange spokesman. "Especially being a Sunday."

By 4 p.m., 779 people had enrolled, including 461 in private plans and 136 in Medicaid, and 182 in dental plans.

When I updated my #OE3 state-level enrollment projections yesterday, I came across this official projection for #OE3 from Your Health Idaho's Sept. 18th board meeting minutes:

Rep. Rusche asked what our target enrollment is for this cycle and what barriers we see in making those targets. Mr. Kelly said the team is focused on the 80% goal of 92,000 as our enrollment target.Premium increases are a potential barrier. Net premium is a relatively small increase for most consumers, and each consumer will experience something different depending Page 5 of 14 on their plan, their location, their carrier, etc. We feel that while the premiums are increasing the relatively small net premium increase will mitigate this barrier to a large degree.

When I asked for clarification, they informed me that:

We currently have 86,659 effectuated enrollments with Your Health Idaho, as of September 15. The 92,000 would also refer to effectuated enrollments.

In my most recent Maryland exchange update, I noted that after months of ACA exchange enrollments increasing during the off-season (if slowly), net policy cancellations finally started to outweight off-season additions starting in August:

As of Aug. 13th, 606,226 Marylanders have enrolled in quality, affordable health coverage for 2015 through Maryland’s state-based insurance marketplace.

That includes 123,673 people enrolled in private Qualified Health Plans (QHP) and 482,553 people enrolled in Medicaid through the marketplace since open enrollment for the year began on Nov. 15, 2014. Nearly 94 percent of all Marylanders who have enrolled through Maryland Health Connection for coverage this year received financial assistance.

Today, the exchange tweeted out a quickie update ahead of the 2016 Open Enrollment period:

A couple of days ago I noted that Covered California is adding a very good feature this year: They're opening up 2016 enrollment nearly 3 weeks early...for those who are already currently enrolled. Starting this monday, Oct. 12, current enrollees will be able to renew or switch to a different CoveredCA plan, 19 days ahead of he official Nov. 1st Open Enrollment launch.

Today I discovered that at least one other state-based exchange (Kynect, in Kentucky) is doing this as well...sort of:

I clicked through and saw this listed under the Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How do I enroll in kynect?
Simply visit kynect.ky.gov or talk to your insurance agent. If your insurance plan is up for renewal, you may be eligible to enroll through kynect today. You can also call Customer Service at 1-855-4kynect (459-6328).

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