Sunday marks the beginning of the third open enrollment period for the ACA and will usher in a host of new changes for consumers and agents and brokers alike. This includes increased support for agents and brokers through dedicated call center representatives trained to assist in agent and broker specific issues. The dedicated agent and broker call-in number will go “live” on Sunday, but the call-in number will not be public until open enrollment begins on November 1. This new dedicated line for agents and brokers will be able to assist with:

• Agents’ and brokers’ user IDs for FFM registration and training
• The new Marketplace Learning Management System (MLMS) and CMS-approved vendor training options
• National Producer Numbers (NPNs)
• Password resets and account lockouts on the CMS portal
• Login issues at the healthcare.gov landing page (when an agent or broker is redirected from an issuer’s or web-broker’s site)
• Healthcare.gov website issues.

Although the new dedicated line will not be able to assist brokers with issues regarding specific applications, the call center representatives will be able to assist agents and brokers with the overall system of working through healthcare.gov. For any individual consumer application specific issues, agents must use the general marketplace call center number. Early next week the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) will be sending an email out to all agents and brokers registered to sell in the federal marketplace with the new dedicated call-in number for agents and brokers as well as the services provided by this number compared to what will still be offered to agents and brokers through the general marketplace call center number.

The agent and broker call center number will also be given out next week on the first CCIIO’s weekly webinars providing marketplace updates for plan year 2016. Beginning November 3 and continuing through the end of the open enrollment period, CMS will be hosting weekly webinars for agents and brokers participating in the FFM. These webinars will provide agents and brokers with updates and announcements related to open enrollment, as well as reminders of upcoming critical deadlines. The webinars will also provide highlights of relevant program content or information. CMS will be hosting two identical sessions of these webinars each week, on Tuesdays from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Eastern and Thursdays from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

To register for any of these sessions, log in to www.REGTAP.info and complete the following steps:

1. Select "Training Events" from "My Dashboard."
2. Select the "View" icon next the session of “Health Insurance Marketplace 2016 Open Enrollment Operational Updates and Announcements for Agents and Brokers” you are interested in attending.
3. Select "Register Me."

The call center and webinars will join other broker improvements, including bi-weekly calls for brokers to provide feedback on issues and identify themes for improvement, revising the “local help” feature to now display brokers across the top of the screen along with other assisters, and listing a resources link for agents and brokers on the bottom of the home screen for healthcare.gov. Finally, CCIIO will be collecting “good news” stories from brokers and consumers who worked with brokers to promote the role of the broker and to recognize the value you bring to the marketplace.

NAHU applauds these efforts by CCIIO to improve the consumer and broker experiences on healthcare.gov. We have been asking the Administration, including Healthcare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan, for additional call center support since the federal marketplace opened in October 2013 and worked with leaders in Congress to send letters asking for a dedicated broker hotline in 2014 and 2015. We will continue our efforts with the Administration to improve the broker and consumer experiences, including resolving the issue of NPNs being dropped from edited applications, which is currently under review by CCIIO officials.

In addition to the new broker resources, healthcare.gov will be launching with other resources targeted at improving the consumer experience. This includes the new cost estimator tool, which allows consumers to pick plans based on expected medical needs. A “low” need user would have minimal expenses while a “medium” would have a couple of physicians office visits and prescription drug costs, and “high” would include 10 or more physician visits, multiple tests, over a dozen prescription drug costs, a hospital admission, and other expenses. After selecting the type of expected use, the consumer can sort by premium, deductible, plan type, and medical management programs.

The Administration released an affordability snapshot of the marketplaces detailing how pricing varies from last year for consumers. The marketplaces will be opening with an average 7.5% increase in the premium costs for benchmark plans over last year. These vary considerably by state, with Indiana’s average falling by 12.6% while consumers in Alaska, Montana, and Oklahoma will see their rates increase by more than 30%. An estimated 80% of marketplace enrollees are expected to purchase a plan for $100 or less after accounting for premium tax credits. The Administration also released data showing that consumers who re-enrolled last year and switched plans within the same coverage level saved an average of roughly $400 annually, after tax credits, compared to what their previous year’s plan would have cost during this plan year. Those who switched issuers within the same coverage level saved nearly $500 annually, after tax credits.