Since the Affordable Care Act first launched in full force, there have been a number of states that have had some problems getting their Health Connect call centers up and running properly. One of those Health Connect centers that had some problems over the last few months is Minnesota’s MNsure.
But now there’s good news: The MNsure wellness insurance exchange says it has significantly improved its website and call center experiences and that people will certainly notice once open enrollment begins again later this month.
During the last open enrollment period, the state-run website and call center were both plagued by problems that made the insurance exchange a thorn in the side of Minnesota citizens. USANews reports that managers from the state’s information and technology agency told the exchange’s board of directors that testing has been underway for the last number of weeks and the performance was quite a bit better.
The website is said to be 75 percent quicker than it was during peak times last year. MNsure has also added a number of new call center employees. Inexplicably, the call center had a grand total of 22 people working at the center during open enrollment last year. This year there will be well over 300. It stands to reason that there will be a number of state run call centers and websites looking to have a better second year than they did in its first year.
It also seems likely that any state run call center is simply going to have a better go of it this year because they have some experience under their belts. Certainly it appears that MNsure is taking its job a bit more seriously, especially when you look at the massive influx of employees at the call center. The website is something that had to be fixed as well, but was less about staffing and more about the technology. It will be interesting to see if they get it right this time.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson