Health Insurance exchange: “customer complaints are a blessing”

In yesterday’s Health Care Cabinet meeting’s insurance exchange report we learned that staff there welcome complaints as windows into their system’s flaws. They understand that if they hear one complaint, it usually means there are 50 other consumers with the same problem who didn’t call. They see these as opportunities to fix problems and learn. Refreshing. The call center abandoned call rate is down and the Spanish language site has received about 1,000 applications since it opened a few weeks ago. However, because of technical issues in the exchange, they still can’t answer important questions about how many of the 60,000 people who have enrolled in insurance coverage were previously uninsured. It was suggested that the exchange commission a survey by an outside, credible group that will vigorously  protect privacy to answer that question and more. In a future meeting, the Cabinet will get more information on plans to sell an “exchange in a box” to other states.

In contrast, the SIM update was disappointing.