As I noted last week, Rhode Island is doing exactly what every state exchange (as well as HC.gov) should be doing, assuming they have the technical capability to do so: They're updating their "enrollment" data weekly by purging those who didn't pay by the payment deadline, thus keeping their enrollment data as "clean" as possible. As a result, their "total" enrollment tally has actually dropped over the past 2 weeks as they cull unpaid enrollees from the official count. This is a good thing.
Unfortunately, since they're the only state doing this so far (both VT and MA are also tracking payment rates, but they're not lowering the "total" number accordingly), it also means that their "total" data is out of sync with everyone else's. This skews my national payment rate calculation a bit, but RI's numbers are so low anyway that it shouldn't have much of an impact one way or the other.
In any event, as of January 31st:
RENEWAL UPDATE
As of January 31, 2015, 78% of Year One customers have renewed (selected a plan) for 2015 (77% of renewing customers paid the first month’s premium).
As of January 17th, Rhode Island had enrolled about 28.8K people in private plans for 2015, or around 78% of their "official" target (based on the HHS Dept's "30% higher than last year" target).
RENEWAL UPDATE* As of January 24, 2015, 79% of Year One customers have renewed (selected a plan) for 2015 (75% of renewing customers paid the first month’s premium).
Total New Customers: 7,862 (6,539 paid)
Total Renewed Customers: 20,283 (19,189 paid) Total HealthSource RI enrollments for 2015 coverage: 28,145 (25,728 paid)
Hey, cool! That's a 91% payment rate! Um...except for one thing...somehow they've lost 644 people? Oh, wait...
Hot off the presses... HealthSource RI has posted their latest enrollment report; the new numbers are modest, but the payment data is rapidly improving; they're up to an 84% payment rate and the other 16% still have 6 days (from the 17th) to pay up.
DEMOGRAPHIC, AND VOLUME DATA THROUGH JANUARY 17, 2015
RENEWAL UPDATE As of January 17, 2015, 81% of Year One customers have renewed (selected a plan) for 2015 (72% of renewing customers paid the first month’s premium).
Total New Customers: 7,660 (5,646 paid)
Total Renewed Customers: 21,129 (18,460 paid) Total HealthSource RI enrollments for 2015 coverage: 28,789 (24,106 paid)
...Renewed Customers
2015 vs. 2014 Selection by Plan, by Metal Level and by Insurer
Sean Parnell has posted a fairly negative story on the Rhode Island exchange, HealthSource RI. This is fairly unusual, because Rhode Island's exchange is actually one of the better ones...it operated fairly smoothly both last year and this year, and they're the only state which willingly followed the "no autorenewal" advice which I was giving to all of the exchanges way back in June (a few other states didn't allow autorenewals either, but that wasn't their choice...the new software platform wasn't compatible with the old software).
The problem in Rhode Island is that no matter how smooth and drama-free the exchange's operations have been, the actual numbers just haven't been up to snuff:
TODAY, January 15th, is the deadline for anyone who wants to enroll in a private insurance policy for coverage starting on February 1st in most states (or to switch to a different policy if you have one but want to make a change starting in February).
After that, of course, we'll have the big February 15th deadline (for March 1st coverage), which will also be a big deal because it'll be the last chance many (not all) uninsured people have to get coverage before the door slams closed until next fall.
Remember, the penalty in 2016 for not having health insurance in 2015 is considerably higher than it was for 2014: Instead of 1% of your taxable income (or $95/person in your household, whichever is higher), the fee this year is 2% of your income or $325 per person.
No official press release yet, but all of the numbers are here and are (thankfully) properly presented:
Following a flurry of activity leading up to a New Year’s Eve enrollment deadline for coverage on Jan. 1 — and also through the first 10 days of this month — 80 percent of first-year customers have signed up for a plan for this year, according to figures to be released on Thursday. Of those, 67 percent have followed through and paid their first monthly premium.
...Total enrollments for individuals now stands at 27,690, up from 25,288 just before the start of open enrollment in mid-November.
...“We were preparing for that with a very robust consumer outreach plan,” said spokeswoman Maria Tocco, adding, “I’m not sure we knew what to expect.”
...HealthSource RI reports that, as of Wednesday, 6,918 people who were not previously customers had been signed up for coverage. Wallack called that figure “great.”
...The new subscribers joined 20,772 returning individuals. Together, the two groups combined for an increase of 2,402 covered individuals, up slightly less than 1 percent from just before enrollment began.
Yes, that's right: We're quickly approaching the next big deadline: Private policy enrollment in time for coverage starting on February 1st.
Of the 3 monthly deadlines (January 1st start, February 1st start, March 1st start), this is the one getting the lowest amount of hype, for obvious reasons. The December 15th (or December 18, 23 or later, depending on the state) deadline was a huge deal because millions of people had to be renewed (either actively or automatically) in order to avoid any sort of a coverage gap, while a few million more people new to the exchanges jumped on board in time to start 2015 running. By my estimate, there should have been roughly 8.6 million people whose 2015 policies started on Jan. 1st.
A few days ago, Rhode Island issued their latest numbers through 12/27. However, like Vermont, Minnesota and Hawaii, they bumped their January-start deadline out to New Year's Eve, making it tricky to get a bead on their "post deadline" enrollment pattern, which is where things are for every state now.
PROVIDENCE – HealthSource RI (HSRI) has released enrollment data, certain demographic data and certain volume metrics through Saturday, January 3, 2015, for Open Enrollment.
Individual Enrollment data (November 7, 2014 through January 3, 2015) As of January 3, 2015, 78% of Year One customers have renewed (selected a plan) for 2015 (59% of renewing customers paid their first month’s premium).
Total New Customers: 6,067
Total Renewed Customers: 20,313
Total HealthSource RI enrollments for 2015 coverage (including those who have not yet paid): 26,380
Remember, Rhode Island bumped out their January coverage deadline all the way through New Year's Eve, so even this data is still presumably missing a small surge on the final day:
HEALTHSOURCE RI RELEASES ENROLLMENT, DEMOGRAPHIC AND VOLUME DATA THROUGH DECEMBER 27, 2014
Posted on January 2, 2015 | By HealthSource RI
PROVIDENCE – HealthSource RI (HSRI) has released enrollment data, certain demographic data and certain volume metrics through Saturday, December 27, 2014, for Open Enrollment.
Enrollment data (November 7, 2014 through December 27, 2014)
As of December 27, 2014, 71% of Year One customers have renewed plans for 2015.*
Total New Customers: 4,969
Total Renewed Customers: 17,941
Total HealthSource RI enrollments for 2015 coverage
(including those who have not yet paid): 22,910
*As of December 30, 74% of Year One customers have renewed plans for 2015.
SHOP (cumulative as of December 27, 2014)
Small employer applications completed: 532
Small employer accounts created: 1,904 Small employer enrollment: 437 (representing 3,157 covered lives, based on their submitted census)
Small employers enrolling in Full Choice Model: 76%
A nice fully-detailed enrollment report out of Rhode Island, although there's a rather curious wording decision for an even more recent update:
PROVIDENCE – HealthSource RI (HSRI) has released enrollment data, certain demographic data and certain volume metrics through Saturday, December 20, 2014, for Open Enrollment.
Enrollment data (November 7, 2014 through December 20, 2014) 56% of Year One Customers Have Renewed Plans for 2015.* Total New Customers: 3,841
Total Renewed Customers: 13,780
Total HealthSource RI enrollments for 2015 coverage (including those who have not yet paid): 17,621
*HealthSource RI reports as of December 23, a total of 68% of Year One customers have renewed plans for 2015.
SHOP (cumulative as of December 20, 2014):
Small employer applications completed: 529
Small employer accounts created: 1,901 Small employer enrollment: 437 (representing 3,192 covered lives, based on their submitted census)
Small employers enrolling in Full Choice Model: 76%
