Nevada: 1/3 of the way through Open Enrollment, 60.5K have been enrolled in QHPs for 2020

via KLAS-TV:

CARSON CITY, Nev. (KLAS) — Nearly 60,500 Nevadans have enrolled in a Qualified Health Plan for plan year 2020 since open enrollment began on Nov. 1.

The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, which runs online insurance marketplace Nevada Health Link, announced these numbers just 15 days into the enrollment period.

Nevada Health Link migrated 65,563 Nevadans from HealthCare.gov onto the State Based Exchange platform at NevadaHealthLink.com.

“At exactly one-third of the way into open enrollment, we are enthusiastic about the level of engagement we’ve seen from consumers and brokers,” said Heather Korbulic, executive director of Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, in a press release. “While we still have work to do to reach the uninsured populations throughout our state, we remain optimistic that we will see enrollment numbers continue to rise throughout the duration of this enrollment period.”

The agency says this is the first year Nevada Health Link will no longer rely on HealthCare.gov after the transition began in 2018.

There are 733 brokers, 64 certified enrollment counselors, eight navigator entities and 30 exchange enrollment facilitators on the agency’s staff. They’re able to assist with enrollment in several languages, including English, Spanish and Mandarin.

For more information, please visit the Nevada Health Link website.

Again: Nevada split off from the federal exchange at HealthCare.Gov this fall, the first state to do so since Idaho broke off onto their own platform in 2014. From the sounds of it, everything went pretty smoothly.

Nevada had a total of 83,449 people select Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) during the 2019 Open Enrollment Period. Via normal monthly attrition, however, this number had apparently gradually dropped off to around 80% of that as of early November; the 65.6K figure is the total number of Nevadans who were still enrolled in HC.gov policies (or at least who had open HC.gov accounts) who were migrated over to the new state-based exchange platform.

Of those, it sounds like over 92% of them have already either selected a policy for 2020 or, in most cases, been automatically renewed/re-enrolled in a policy for 2020.

UPDATE: Here's the official press release with additional details:

Nevada Health Link Announces Enrollment Numbers from the First 15 Days of Open Enrollment

Carson City, NV - The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, the state agency that runs the online insurance marketplace known as Nevada Health Link announces as of November 15th—at 15 days into the 45-day open enrollment period—60,460 Nevadans have been enrolled in a Qualified Health Plan. Nevada Health Link is the only place consumers can receive financial assistance to help offset the monthly premium costs of insurance. Open Enrollment for Plan Year 2020 ends on December 15th for coverage to begin on January 1, 2020.

As part of the transition to a State Based Exchange (SBE), Nevada Health Link migrated a total of 65,563 Nevada consumers from HealthCare.gov onto the SBE platform at NevadaHealthLink.com.

• 58,241 of migrated consumers were auto-reenrolled, which represents 89 percent of the total active enrollees migrated from HealthCare.gov.
• 2,906 represents the number of new consumer enrollments into qualified health plans as of November 15th.
• 6,788 represents the number of returning consumers who have actively shopped and enrolled in a plan as of November 15th.

"At exactly one-third of the way into Open Enrollment, we are enthusiastic about the level of engagement we’ve seen from consumers and brokers. While we still have work to do to reach the uninsured populations throughout our state, we remain optimistic that we will see enrollment numbers continue to rise throughout the duration of this open enrollment period,” said Heather Korbulic, executive director, Silver State Health Insurance Exchange. "Nevadans need to know that Nevada Health Link is the only place they can qualify for financial assistance to help cover the costs of health insurance, and all plans sold through Nevada Health Link cover the ten essential health benefits mandated by the Affordable Care Act. Not all health plans are created equal.”

This is the first year Nevada Health Link is no longer reliant on the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace, HealthCare.gov. Korbulic and her team have worked diligently since 2018 to transition Nevada Health Link away from the federal platform to a State Based Exchange. Since the beginning of Open Enrollment, Nevada Health Link's Customer Assistance Call Center has answered 5,041 calls, and has resolved 92 percent of consumer inquiries in a single call. Guests’ experience continues to be positive; survey results have shown a 94 percent customer satisfaction score.

Some additional real-time findings from this year's Open Enrollment campaign include an increase in website traffic eight times higher than last year, which demonstrates the effectiveness of Nevada Health Link's current marketing campaign that promotes subsidy eligibility and affordability.

Korbulic says she is thrilled to see stakeholders and community partners statewide truly engaged in promoting open enrollment and getting Nevadans connected to local assistance. There are 733 Certified Brokers, 64 Certified Enrollment Counselors, and eight Navigator entities, as well as 30 Exchange Enrollment Facilitators on staff to assist Nevada residents with the enrollment process in multiple languages, including Spanish and Mandarin in addition to English.

"We know buying health insurance can be intimidating, and that’s why we have hundreds of professionals ready to help. If you purchased a plan last year but no longer are enrolled for Plan Year 2020, please explore the plans on Nevada Health Link. It may be easy to procrastinate until the end of the enrollment period, but there's never a better time than right now to secure coverage in case you become ill or injured. No one, regardless of age, income or circumstance, can afford to be without health insurance,” said Korbulic.

Open enrollment for Plan Year 2020 started on November 1 and runs through December 15, 2019 on the Exchange’s new State Based Exchange enrollment and eligibility platform at NevadaHealthLink.com. Subscribe to Nevada Health Link's Blog and YouTube channel, like them on Facebook or follow on Twitter and Instagram. Nevada Health Link always encourages consumers to use the free assistance of a licensed enrollment professional by calling 1-800-547-2927 or by visiting NevadaHealthLink.com.