Covered California managers want to put off the start date of their navigator program and get by instead with 16,000 "certified enrollment counselors" and 9,000 to 15,000 certified insurance agents.
Sarah Soto-Taylor, the deputy director of community relations at the state-based exchange, talked about the Navigator program delay Thursday at an exchange board meeting.
The state's navigators, or independent exchange ombudsmen, won't be ready to serve consumers until June 2014, Soto-Taylor said, according to a written version of her presentation.
In June, a proposed navigator program timeline showed the navigators would be up and running by January 2014.
The exchange board is still working on the regulations needed to run an official Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Navigator program, Soto-Taylor said.
Covered California will compensate by training about 16,000 outreach and education workers, and 9,000 to 15,000 insurance agents, officials said.