A friendlier Healthcare.gov call center prepares for rush
Workers at the Vermont Health Connect call center talk to customers during the last open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act.(Photo: Toby Talbot, AP)Thousands of more friendly and better-trained call-center employees will be working starting Monday to deal with the expected late onslaught of people signing up before the Obamacare open enrollment ends Feb. 15.A 40% increase, to a 14,000-person workforce, is expected to help with wait times, which averaged about 2 ½ minutes the last week of January, but are likely to get longer as the deadline nears. People who aren't covered by employer-provided insurance and don't sign up by the deadline won't be eligible for insurance this year and will face increasing penalties at tax time.Wait times were so long before the Dec. 15 deadline to get insurance that took effect Jan. 1 that consumers were told it would take a week to get called back. The deadlines were extended for those consumers who left their names, just as it would be if that happens next weekend, said Andy Slavitt, principal deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Call-center workers seem better trained in both insurance and customer service this year, said Brenda Cardenas, an insurance navigator with Arizona Alliance of Community Health Centers."If reps aren't courteous, people are going to get frustrated faster and they're going to give up faster," Cardenas said.In fact, call-center workers are so polite this year, it can get almost annoying, said Laurie Zimmerman, a navigator with Insure Quad Cities in Davenport, Iowa."They say 'I'm sorry' way too many times." she said.Those who deal with the call center regularly said if the answer you get doesn't seem right, hang up and try again. The next representative may be able to do better..Elizabeth Colvin, director of the non-profit Insure Central Texas, said the issue is far less common this year, but "sometimes they get on the wrong script, essentially."Zimmerman agrees. "You can call HealthCare.gov three different times and get three different answers," she said.Call-center workers have become much more proficient at unlocking consumers' accounts this year, which remains an issue because many people forget their passwords, user names or both, said Cardenas. Last year, the workers would tell people to just create new accounts, which tended to create more confusion and is a particularly bad idea this year for those re-enrolling, she said.Being locked out of one's account can be extremely frustrating, especially for some of the low-wage workers who have very limited time to deal with their insurance, navigators said. But some of the problems — such as lapses in insurance coverage for sick relatives — can infuriate people.Ronnell Nolan, who heads Health Agents for America in Baton Rouge, said she and some of her members long suspected call-center workers weren't giving them their own names. Nolan recalls dealing with someone who went by what sounded like the same name as actress Halle Berry. Turns out, they don't use their own names — and it's with good reason, said CMS spokesman Aaron Albright,Representatives use aliases and won't disclose their location because of prior threats, he said, calling it common practice in the industry. Call-center managers know the reps' aliases and the system automatically generates a call record that includes the representative's name, he said. This can be used if there are questions raised about a call and for quality assurance."Our call-center representatives are held accountable for their performance," Albright said.Spanking your kids is OK by popeFeb 08, 2015
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