Health Insurance Blog

I can’t wait for open enrollment. This year open enrollment is more than the thrill of helping consumers with their health insurance needs or finding a new strategy to stay ahead of the competition. I am hoping for two simple things this year: The Marketplace makes good with their promises and update/fixes their customer service.

Last year there were constant complaints about the website shutting down, kicking people off and loosing information. People couldn’t log in for hours or would have to start the whole process over. For me, gaining the two simple things I hope for, that sounds like a fairy tale. These issues can be fixed–but customer service seems to be a constant issue that is not being fixed. I have no issues with the individuals who are on the phone, working at The Marketplace trying to pay their bills. Occasionally you talk to someone rude, but that’s life, I can’t avoid that.

What needs to change is the lack of training, information, and, my boss Tim’s favorite, the fact that these individuals working at the customer service lines of The Marketplace are NOT LICENSED as health insurance agents and they are giving insurance advice. I try my best to go the extra mile for my clients by staying up to date on the health insurance world with newsletters, attending carrier training meetings, listening to NPR about subjects that effect our industry, etc. However I have hit a roadblock. Something I can’t change: The Marketplace.

For example, did you know that if you try to add a dependent to your plan, your policy may term.  I had a gentleman the other day just try to add his children. We called them up, added the children and when we finished the woman at The Marketplace said they would not be effective on the plan until a month later. When we asked why she simply said “I’m not sure that’s how it is.” I had another woman try to update her income as they were making more money. The Marketplace kicked their child to medicaid without consulting her. This isn’t always an issue but that child is without insurance until medicaid confirms or denies this child which takes an average of two months. I have a number of examples like this but I don’t need to bore anyone. If you have had similar issues or need help please reach out to the Health Insurance Specialists and your story will be shared. We do our best to represent our industry with our local government officials.

This article was written by Patrick, a contributing writer and employee of The Health Insurance Specialists Inc.

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