Governor Lamont Announces First Positive Case of Novel Coronavirus Involving a Connecticut Resident
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) State Laboratory has confirmed the first presumptive positive case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) involving a Connecticut resident. The patient, a resident of Wilton who is 40 to 50 years of age, is being treated at Danbury Hospital. The person most likely became infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 during a recent trip to California and sought medical care shortly after returning to Connecticut.
This presumptive COVID-19 case is not related to the COVID-19 case involving a Danbury Hospital employee who is a resident of New York State that was announced on Friday, or the COVID-19 case involving a community physician who made rounds at Bridgeport Hospital and is also a New York State resident that was announced on Saturday.
A Small Number Of Access Health CT Consumers Will Receive Mail This Week About Their Personal Information And Should Review Carefully
HARTFORD, Conn. (January 28, 2020)—Approximately 1,100 Access Health CT consumers will be receiving an ORANGE ENVELOPE in the mail this week. It is important that consumers review this information carefully as they will need to take action to enroll in free services being offered to help protect their personal information that may have been compromised in a data breach.
“Access Health CT takes the privacy and security of consumers’ personal information seriously, and it is making this public notice in an abundance of caution,” said Chief Executive Officer of Access Health CT, James Michel. “We apologize for any inconvenience to consumers and we remain steadfast in our commitment to keep our consumers’ best interests as our number one priority.”
The calculation doesn’t include the last day of open enrollment, but Access Health officials reported Thursday that enrollment was down 2.7% in 2020.
An estimated 106,376 Connecticut residents enrolled with either ConnectiCare or Anthem Health Plans. That’s fewer than the estimated 111,066 who signed up for coverage last year.
I'm not sure where she gets 2.7%...that's a 4.2% drop year over year. They tacked on another 200 or so per day over the final week or so...if you assume a small surge on the final day they might top out at 107K, which would be perhaps a 3.7% drop.
A few more useful data nuggets:
It was the fourth year in a row that there was a drop in customers qualifying for federal tax credits to off-set the cost of the monthly premiums. An estimated 69% of those who enrolled this year are eligible for a subsidy. That’s a drop from 78% in 2016.
Close To 20 Percent Of Access Health CT Customers Still Need To Submit Verification Documents To Stay Covered
Customers can scan and submit verification documents at Enrollment Fairs, via mail or online
Some AHCT customers will receive letters in the mail requesting specific documents to confirm information in their application.
Documents can be submitted online, at an Enrollment Fair where documents can be scanned and uploaded immediately or by mail.
Failure to submit documents by the deadline can result in loss of coverage or financial help.
HARTFORD, Conn. (January 13, 2020)—Open Enrollment to sign up for a 2020 health insurance plan through Access Health CT (AHCT) ends at midnight on Wednesday, January 15, 2020. Connecticut residents can still enroll online, over the phone, or in-person at any of our Enrollment Fairs or five Enrollment Locations—and some might need to submit verification documents.
As of today, their press release page states the following:
Stats as of December 13, 2019:
Qualified Health Plans (QHP):
Net Total QHP Enrollment: 102,589
2020 OE Acquisition Summary: 15,067
Overall Volume
Unique Website Visitors: 157,591
Calls Handled: 152,733
Medicaid: Completed applications/redeterminations processed through the integrated eligibility system: 35,231
This was as of 12/13, so it's missing the last 2 days of Open Enrollment signups. They would have to have added another 8,500 people in the final two days in order to beat last year's total of 111,066.
Medicaid: Completed applications/redeterminations processed through the integrated eligibility system: 29,692
I'm assuming this means that they've joined several other state exchanges and are front-loading their auto-renewals of everyone currently enrolled. I'm further assuming that of those 99,322 people, 10,281 of them are new enrollees. If so, that means they'll have to enroll just 11,744 more people over the next four weeks to beat last year's 111,066 total.
Over the past few years, more and more of the state-based exchanges have shifted from waiting until the end of Open Enrollment to officially report auto-renewals of existing enrollees...to going ahead and auto-renewing everyone up front, and then subtracting those current enrollees who actively cancel their renewals.
This has caused a bit of confusion, since the exchanges don't always make it clear who's being counted and when.
Case in point: Access Health CT, Connecticut's ACA exchange. Last year they reported 12,777 enrollees during the first two weeks of Open Enrollment...and also noted that there were another 85,000 existing enrollees who hadn't yet actively renewed their policies as of 11/18.
OK, this is a bit confusing. Over the past few years, more and more of the state-based exchanges have shifted from waiting until the end of Open Enrollment to officially report auto-renewals of existing enrollees...to going ahead and auto-renewing everyone up front, and then subtracting those current enrollees who actively cancel their renewals.
This has caused a bit of confusion, since the exchanges don't always make it clear who's being counted and when.
Case in point: Access Health CT, Connecticut's ACA exchange. Last year they reported 12,777 enrollees during the first two weeks of Open Enrollment...and also noted that there were another 85,000 existing enrollees who hadn't yet actively renewed their policies as of 11/18.
