Health News
- Carrie Banahan, Director Of Kynect, Is Named One Of Governing Magazine's Nine Public Officials Of The Year
Carrie Banahan, executive director of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, has been selected by Governing magazine as one of nine 2014 Public Officials of the Year. The magazine, for state and local government officials, has presented the awards since...
- Kynect Enrollment Accelerates As Monday Deadline Nears; Call Center To Be Open Form 8 To 4:30 Saturday And Sunday
Enrollment in coverage through the state's Kynect health-insurance exchange is accelerating as Monday's deadline for open enrollment approached. State officials reported Friday that the rate has surpassed 4,000 per day, bringing the total to more...
- Feds, State Will Allow Mid-april Enrollment For People Who Start But Don't Complete Obamacare Applications By March 31
"The Obama administration has decided to give extra time to Americans who say that they are unable to enroll in health-care plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the March 31 deadline," The Washington Post reports. "Federal officials...
- State Insurance Exchange Officials Say They're Not Worried About Relatively Low Share Of People 18-34 Signing Up For Health Plans
By Melissa Landon Kentucky Health News Two and a half months before the initial enrollment period ends, only 21.6 percent of Kentuckians who have signed up for a health plan are aged 18 to 34. The new health-insurance system depends on young people's...
- Online Health-insurance Exchange Will Differ In Several Ways From Those In Other States; Scheduled To Go Online Oct. 1
Kentucky is one of 17 states setting up its own online health-insurance exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A new report provides a limited update about the process, and reminds us that Kentucky doesn't have a long-term...
Health News
As deadline looms to choose plan for coverage effective Jan. 1, calls flood Kynect contact center; agents get special number
By Melissa Landon
Kentucky Health News
The Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange contact center has been in unusually high demand this week because of the Wednesday, Jan. 15 deadline to sign up for a health care plan. Some insurance agents have voiced concerns about long waits, unreturned phone calls and slow issuance of insurance cards.
"People had to select a plan by January 15 to have a 1/1 effective date," said Carrie Banahan, executive director of the exchange, branded as Kynect. "We allowed an extension, and people are calling at the last minute."
It's a complicated process. Transactions must take place, the information has to reach the insurance companies, and the companies must send out invoices and cards, said Bill Nold, Kynect's deputy executive director. Banahan said it could take seven to 10 days after a premium is paid for policyholders to receive cards certifying they are insured.
"All of this has kind of come to a head just in the last week or so," said Nold, "but probably not as quickly as people had hoped, and there's some frustration."
To help resolve the problem, a special phone number will be available for agents and the exchange's paid "kynectors" to call, Banahan said. More than 30 people will be staffing the phones and will become familiar with the unique issues that agents and kynectors are experiencing, Banahan said.
Kentucky Health News
The Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange contact center has been in unusually high demand this week because of the Wednesday, Jan. 15 deadline to sign up for a health care plan. Some insurance agents have voiced concerns about long waits, unreturned phone calls and slow issuance of insurance cards.
"People had to select a plan by January 15 to have a 1/1 effective date," said Carrie Banahan, executive director of the exchange, branded as Kynect. "We allowed an extension, and people are calling at the last minute."
It's a complicated process. Transactions must take place, the information has to reach the insurance companies, and the companies must send out invoices and cards, said Bill Nold, Kynect's deputy executive director. Banahan said it could take seven to 10 days after a premium is paid for policyholders to receive cards certifying they are insured.
"All of this has kind of come to a head just in the last week or so," said Nold, "but probably not as quickly as people had hoped, and there's some frustration."
To help resolve the problem, a special phone number will be available for agents and the exchange's paid "kynectors" to call, Banahan said. More than 30 people will be staffing the phones and will become familiar with the unique issues that agents and kynectors are experiencing, Banahan said.
- Carrie Banahan, Director Of Kynect, Is Named One Of Governing Magazine's Nine Public Officials Of The Year
Carrie Banahan, executive director of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, has been selected by Governing magazine as one of nine 2014 Public Officials of the Year. The magazine, for state and local government officials, has presented the awards since...
- Kynect Enrollment Accelerates As Monday Deadline Nears; Call Center To Be Open Form 8 To 4:30 Saturday And Sunday
Enrollment in coverage through the state's Kynect health-insurance exchange is accelerating as Monday's deadline for open enrollment approached. State officials reported Friday that the rate has surpassed 4,000 per day, bringing the total to more...
- Feds, State Will Allow Mid-april Enrollment For People Who Start But Don't Complete Obamacare Applications By March 31
"The Obama administration has decided to give extra time to Americans who say that they are unable to enroll in health-care plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the March 31 deadline," The Washington Post reports. "Federal officials...
- State Insurance Exchange Officials Say They're Not Worried About Relatively Low Share Of People 18-34 Signing Up For Health Plans
By Melissa Landon Kentucky Health News Two and a half months before the initial enrollment period ends, only 21.6 percent of Kentuckians who have signed up for a health plan are aged 18 to 34. The new health-insurance system depends on young people's...
- Online Health-insurance Exchange Will Differ In Several Ways From Those In Other States; Scheduled To Go Online Oct. 1
Kentucky is one of 17 states setting up its own online health-insurance exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A new report provides a limited update about the process, and reminds us that Kentucky doesn't have a long-term...