Exchanges release early transaction numbers

October 03, 2013 at 11:27 AM
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Given all of the technical glitches and marketing challenges the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchanges face, it's tough to know how the early exchange traffic and transaction volume numbers will correlate with plan sales.

But, here's a look at some state volume numbers collected by the Associated Press:

Arkansas: State officials say 55,440 low-income residents have told the state they want to use a new program aimed at residents who are slightly above the federal poverty line to buy private coverage through the federally run Arkansas exchange. Regulators there said 22,000 people visited the state's own exchange site Tuesday.

California: Officials at the state-run Covered California exchange said 7,700 Californians began applications for the coverage the first day, and that the two call centers received 19,000 calls by Tuesday afternoon. Blue Shield of California said it received 1,000 calls about the exchanges.

Colorado: Officials at the state-run Connect for Health Colorado exchange said 104,000 people had visited the state's exchange site as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, and that 5,000 had communicated through telephone calls or online chats. About 6,900 set up accounts. The average telephone call wait time was about 4 minutes.

Florida: Orlando-area navigators for the state's federally run exchange told the Associated Press that they'd made contact with 50 people. An event in Jacksonville attracted 34 people and 71 e-mails.

Hawaii: Coral Andrews of the state-run Hawaii Health Connector said that exchange had about 1,200 people submit forms on the opening day.

Illinois: Officials for the federally run Get Covered Illinois exchange said 231,000 people have visited the exchange site and that 5,000 have used the system to submit Medicaid applications online.

Massachusetts: Officials at the state-run Massachusetts Health Connector exchange said 400 people began the application process there during the first few hours that exchange was open. 

Minnesota: Officials at the state-based MNsure exchange said the exchange was averaging about 30,000 to 50,000 Web hits per hour, and about 2,000 to 3,000 concurrent users, as of mid-afternoon Wednesday. The call center had received about 400 calls. Users had created about 2,500 accounts.

New York: The state-run NY State of Health exchange received about 10 million hits Tuesday and were looking; into the causes of the abnormally high traffic.

Pennsylvania: A mobile center trying to market the federally run exchange in Philadelphia attracted about 120 visitors Tuesday and a steady stream of visitors Wednesday.

Rhode Island: Officials at the state-run HealthSource RI said the exchange had attracted 10,735 unique Web visits Tuesday. The exchange received 2,200 telephone calls that day and had 30 in-person visitors. About 1,500 created Web accounts, and 252 people actually enrolled in coverage. Some of the purchasers still have to pay for their coverage.

Vermont: Officials at the Vermont Health Connect exchange — which has been much colder to insurance agents and brokers than other exchanges — continued to experience severe Web problems Wednesday. The exchange said it had received 20,300 Web visitors, and that 1,230 people had created accounts.

Allison Bell compiled this article from reports from Steve LeBlanc in Boston; Oskar Garcia in Honolulu; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark.; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Dave Gram in Montpelier, Vt.; Kelli Kennedy and Mike Schneider in Orlando, Fla.; Kathy Matheson and Michael Rubinkam in Philadelphia; Erika Niedowski in Providence, R.I.; and Laura Olson in Sacramento, Calif.

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