Xerox focuses on exchange backlogs

Xerox officials said Friday that the company has ramped up staff at Nevada’s health exchange call center and is making progress to reduce a backlog of correspondence from consumers seeking assistance to sign up for health coverage.

But a report to the board overseeing the exchange shows the company indicated Friday that there still are glitches in the billing process and system defects, and one board member suggested bringing in another state contractor to help fix the website problems.

Statistics show about 18,000 people have paid enrollments through the exchange.

There are also 13,000 who have selected plans but not yet made payments and roughly 54,000 who have shopped on the site but not chosen coverage.

Those people can expect to be blasted with emails, letters and phone calls urging them to finish the process and sign up.

Mike Willden, director of the Department of Health and Human Services, recommended the board consider at a future meeting hiring another vendor to assist with computer system errors.

“We need to explore options to get us to the finish line,” he said.

Friday’s teleconference meeting came a day after Jon Hager, executive director of the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, announced his resignation effective March 14.

Xerox President David Hamilton said the company is trying to track down 241 people who have sent premium payments but not yet completed their application process to ensure coverage. A backlog of more than 30,000 emails have been trimmed by about 5,000, and call center wait times have been reduced to about a minute, he said.

The call center, which opened last fall with less than 50 representatives, now has nearly 250 employees.

This month, Nevada’s exchange, which operates as Nevada Health Link, cut its enrollment target to 50,000 from 118,000 by March 31.

Low enrollments are a concern for the long-term viability of the program which will rely on fees paid per policy for future operating expenses. But it’s also a concern for Nevada Health CO-OP, a nonprofit, membership-based insurance carrier that received a grant under the federal health care law to set up operations.

“The viability of our startup depends on the exchange being able to get those numbers up,” said Bobbette Bond, the co-op’s project coordinator.