Rhode Island: Hey, whaddya know? They're still reporting OFF-season enrollments!

Once the dust settled on the 2014 and 2015 Open Enrollment periods, only a handful of state exchanges bothered continuing to report off-season exchange enrollments, but I was able to extrapolate those numbers pretty accurately nationwide: Around 7,500 people per day were still signing up via Special Enrollment Periods throughout the summer/fall of 2014, and around 8,500 per day did so last year (not including the time-limited #ACATaxTime SEP from mid-March through the end of April 2015).

This year, that number is expected to drop somewhat due to HHS supposedly cracking down on SEPs in both variety and eligibility verification, but I still wouldn't be surprised if at least, say, 6,000 people per day end up signing up between now and next November (or around 1.6 million total, give or take).

Anyway, even the state exchanges which did keep posting updates generally only did so monthly...which is why I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Rhode Island exchange appears to be sticking to their Weekly Enrollment Report guns even after the dust has settled:

INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY ENROLLMENT • As of February 6, 2016:

• 35,428 individuals are enrolled in 2016 coverage through HSRI, paid and unpaid.
• The majority of these individuals are 2015 HSRI enrollees that were auto-renewed into a 2016 plan.
• 8,103 of the 35,428 individuals have selected a plan for 2016 coverage, and are new to HSRI this year or returning after being enrolled with HSRI at some point during a prior year.

33,148* of the 35,428 individuals are enrolled in 2016 coverage through HSRI, and have paid their first month’s premium.
*The number of paid enrollments is expected to increase as individuals pay for March coverage through the February 23 payment deadline. 

As always, RI's numbers are tiny but still interesting:

• 94% payment rate, which is excellent.
• A net increase of 758 people in the first 6 days after Open Enrollment ended (126 per day)...which is fascinating considering that they only averaged 377 per day during open enrollment even with renewals, and only 82 new additions per day during open enrollment.
• That's right: In the first week of the OFF-season, Rhode Island averaged 54% more signups per day than during open enrollment. Huh.
• Also a head-scratcher: During open enrollment, 7,538 new enrollees were added. Since then that number has gone up 565. That means that the other 193 people were 2015 enrollees who didn't renew during open enrollment, but came back a week later via SEP allowances. Huh x2.

Anyway, assuming RI keeps running these reports every week, it'll act as a nice little benchmark to check every once in awhile. Of course, RI only represents about 0.27% of the national enrollments, so I can't really extrapolate from it (for instance: at face value, 758 more people in Rhode Island would theoretically extrapolate out to 280,000 people nationally, which I suspect is a bit unlikely to have happened).

It's still interesting to watch. It'd be great if every state did this...

SHOP ENROLLMENT • As of February 6, 2016:

• Small employer accounts created: 2,236
• Small employer applications completed: 798
• Small employer enrollment (paid): 565
• These employers represent 4,102 covered lives
• 85% of small employers are enrolled in the Full Choice Model.
• 93% SHOP renewal rate (2016 to date).