Dr. Peter Beilenson may be the only health insurance CEO who picks up the phone when reporters call. So Kaiser Health News bothers him a lot. We caught up with the boss of Maryland鈥檚 late last week to learn how one insurer moved from Obamacare theory to Obamacare practice.
鈥淭hey have their first appointments,鈥� he said of the plan鈥檚 clinics. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen our first patients.鈥�
But not nearly as many as the company had hoped for.
A consumer-owned cooperative started with federal loans, Evergreen runs four health centers in metro Baltimore and Greenbelt, near Washington, D.C. Since Oct. 1, the company has struggled with Maryland鈥檚 dysfunctional online insurance marketplace, Maryland Health Connection, which so far has enrolled in private health plans like the ones sold by Evergreen.
The online exchange has gotten 鈥渕ildly better,鈥� Beilenson said. But even after the New Year launch date of coverage under the health law Evergreen got 鈥渟ignificant numbers of calls 鈥� in the dozens of people 鈥� who have tried to go on the exchange for between a week and 10 weeks and have been frozen out,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow they鈥檙e calling us out of desperation鈥�
Evergreen would try to enroll subscribers through the first week in January for coverage retroactive to Jan. 1, he said. After that, new enrollees will get care starting Feb. 1. Individuals can sign up through March 31, the end of open enrollment for 2014.
The Obama administration has asked insurers to 聽in offering coverage to consumers with trouble signing up and paying on time. On Friday Maryland Gov. Martin O鈥橫alley that would expand a state-run plan for high-risk subscribers to include those who were unable to sign up on Maryland Health Connection.
Enrollment on Maryland Health Connection still isn鈥檛 easy, even with Evergreen鈥檚 staff trying to walk customers though the process of signing up for subsidized coverage.
On average, 鈥渨e kind of jam through five or six a day 鈥� that鈥檚 how hard it is,鈥� Beilenson said. He estimates more than 1,o00 people eligible for subsidies are waiting to sign up as Evergreen customers on individual or family policies. But fewer than 200 had bought individual plans as of Thursday.
The plan has higher hopes for gaining members though policies sponsored by employers. When it became clear in October that online signups for individuals would be a problem, Evergreen switched tactics.
鈥淐learly the majority of our enrollment is going to come initially from small business,鈥� Beilenson said. So far the plan has signed or is close to signing more than 100 employers and expects to have 鈥渁 couple thousand鈥� members in business-sponsored plans by March.
Evergreen hopes eventually to gain 15,000 or 20,000 members. Like other co-ops聽, it needs to quickly gain subscribers and revenue to pay back government loans. But it doesn鈥檛 need to enroll them all the first year, Beilenson has said.