HONOLULU — Hawaii’s health insurance exchange enrolled more than 40 people on the first day clients were able to sign up to be covered next year.
Another 60 applied for financial assistance to pay for premiums as of mid-afternoon, Jeffrey Kissel, the CEO of Hawaii Health Connector, said Saturday.
The insurance exchange expected to serve over 1,000 clients, either online, over the phone or in person by the time it closed for the day at 8 p.m.
This is a shift from last year, when technical problems made it impossible for people to buy plans on the exchange’s website when open enrollment began. The Health Connector had to delay enrollment for two weeks. Some frustrated would-be customers bought plans directly from insurers instead.
Enrollment lagged below projections in the ensuing year, reaching about 10,000 people instead of the 100,000 to 200,000 some public officials predicted. The enterprise only collected about $121,000 in issuer fees instead of the $1 million it anticipated in its budget. That left officials asking for money from the state, which granted $1.5 million for the current fiscal year.
Kissel, a corporate turnaround expert who just took over running the exchange just one month ago, said he pleased with the initial statistics from Saturday.
“I was hoping we would get there but I didn’t know because of the problems we experienced last time — you know — what the level of frustration might be,” said Kissel, who was formerly CEO of Hawaii Gas.
As of mid-afternoon, nearly 500 people had visited the Health Connector website, he said.
All new applicants were able to use the website without trouble he said.
A couple of returning customers needed help because the site had trouble processing a new address or other changed information. Kissel said the agency was able to clear up these problems quickly.
“We need to give everyone a good customer experience and we need to earn their business back,” he said. “I’m really hoping we can continue on this path. We’ve got a lot of good people trying very hard.” “
The exchange aims to enroll 130,000 people over the next four years by adding about 30,000 per year. This would allow it to break even between fiscal year 2018 and 2019. But under that plan, which critics call unrealistic, the entity still faces deficits of $7.7 million in 2016, $6.7 million in 2017 and $3.4 million in 2018.