Covered California’s web site logged nearly a half million unique visits in the week ending Oct. 19, with 2.2 million visitors checking out its health care products since the opening of business.
The California web site continues to fare far better than the federal Affordable Care Act web site, whose numerous problems have drawn the ire of the president — and, of course, Obamacare’s many critics.
Covered California’s call centers handled just over 45,000 service center calls during the week, or almost 157,000 since week 1 of business, which began Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, the Covered California web site has returned its search function for individual doctors, considered a key element for consumers as insurance providers have been limiting providers offered in their networks for Obamacare customers. Glitches remain, such as incorrect listings of languages spoken by providers.
Covered California had been under fire for botching and then removing the search function. A Covered California spokesman said the database project was “very complex” but would be “a powerful tool once it’s fully functional.”
The state exchange also made negative headlines in the past week for not offering quality ratings of health plans it handles. While not news — the ratings decision was explained last summer — Kaiser Permanente and two other insurers made public a letter sent to the Covered California board saying “there has never been a compelling reason to deny this information to consumers.”
Kaiser rates 4 out of 4 stars in the current ratings, available on the Office of the Patient Advocate web site.
Covered California said the available ratings would reflect past performance of health care providers’ services that would not be reflective of their revised offerings under Obamacare. The new ratings are expected in about a year, using data collected after the policies go into effect Jan. 1.
Covered California’s call centers average wait time over the week was 45 seconds. The average handling time (or rep time) per call was 15 minutes 11 seconds.
From Oct. 1 through Oct. 19, approximately 126,000 Covered California applications were begun. That compares with 94,500 for week 2 of Covered California signups.
The state marketplace for individual health insurance did not break out the number of applications completed.
Total enrollment for October will be released in November, Covered California said. The only enrollment figures so far were given for week 1: 16,311 households.
Enrollment was expected to be low in October, with buyers having until Dec. 15 to enroll for policies that take effect Jan. 1, 2014.
The California health insurance marketplace expanded its advertising aimed at Asian-language residents in the past week. Minority signups are considered essential to the success of Obamacare in California.
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