Too many people trying to enroll in Oregon’s health insurance exchange could flood the call center and overwhelm the 50 full-time employees hired to help people find insurance.
 
That could mean not everyone can enroll Oct. 1, the nationwide start date for enrollment in health insurance exchanges introduced in the Affordable Care Act, according to a Reuters story.
 
A Cover Oregon spokeswoman says many of the 550,000 uninsured state residents will need insurance brokers or aides trained by the state to log on, see what policies are available and what federal subsidies they might qualify for, the story states.
 
That could mean long calls to the state’s call center, which plans to hire up to 100 more full-time staffers.
 
States don’t want bad press about how exchanges don’t work or people were disappointed, so the explanation of a delay for some residents “seems to be a pretty prudent move on Oregon’s part,” says Joe Antos of the American Enterprise Institute.
 
For more on when patients in your state can enroll in the exchanges – which will prompt your practice to ensure you know what insurance your patients have – check out Part B News.