PCHC Outreach & Enrollment Specialists Help Over 5,000 People
We are pleased to announce many positive results from outreach and enrollment efforts during the 2014-2015 Health Insurance Marketplace Open Enrollment period which ran from November 15, 2014 through February 15, 2015, and was extended to April 30 for those facing tax penalties. PCHC’s team of Outreach and Enrollment Specialists are dedicated to helping uninsured Mainers get signed up for affordable, quality health care insurance.
During open enrollment, PCHC staff fielded 10,600 calls and provided 1,300 appointments, during which 1,300 people successfully enrolled in Marketplace health insurance, and assisted 4,300 more with the application process. During the previous Marketplace enrollment period, about 1,300 PCHC patients had obtained Marketplace health insurance as well.
PCHC’s Outreach and Enrollment strategy was to focus on patients identified as having no insurance, and to reach out and offer to help them determine their eligibility for quality, low cost health insurance offered through the Federal Marketplace. They explain the need for coverage, not just because it is the law and the IRS could assess penalties, but because it can ensure their medical needs are met at an affordable cost. Through this process, PCHC specialists encountered many who had struggled financially to take care of their medical conditions. In helping some of those people obtain health insurance, they also helped those folks obtain medications and services, and overcome previous barriers to insurance, like pre-existing conditions. Others, who already had health insurance, saw their monthly premiums reduced by hundreds of dollars through the marketplace.
Despite the dedication of PCHC’s Outreach and Enrollment Specialists and others, thousands of Mainers are still without adequate health insurance coverage. In fact, PCHC provides health care for 8,000 patients without any health insurance. PCHC continues to work to address this need and would like to remind consumers that they may sign-up for health insurance outside of open enrollment if they have a qualifying event such as job loss or divorce. Also, for those facing tax penalties, the enrollment period has been extended through April 30. For more information or for help with signing-up, please contact Trudy at 207-992-9200 ext. 2005. You can also learn more by visiting healthcare.gov.