AARP Testimony at Hawaii Health Connector Board Meeting

To: Hawaii Health Connector

Ms. Sherry Menor-McNamara, Chair, and Board of Directors

Date: October 18, 2013, State Capitol, Conference Room 229, 1:00 p.m.

Chair Menor-McNamara and Committee Members:

My name is Steve Tam, Director of Advocacy for AARP Hawaii. AARP is a membership organization of people 50 and older with approximately 148,000 members in Hawaii. AARP fights on issues that matter to Hawaii families including access to affordable, quality health care for all generations.

Accountability & Transparency

The Connector declared that it was “open for business” on October 15, a full 2 weeks behind schedule. The consumer is the loser by this delay as health plan selection is complex and not like shopping for eggs at the market. With $205 million in federal tax dollars to design and implement the Hawaii Health Connector, it still remains unclear how a “glitch” in the system could have caused such a long delay. Why was the public only told of this delay on the day that it was to go live? When was the Board aware of this situation? Who is accountable for the delay?

Now that health plans and rates are available, standard weekly reports should be made public to chart the progress of enrolling Hawaii’s 100,000 uninsured residents. The reports need to include:

1. Number enrolled – Broken out between Health plans and Medicaid

2. Applications completed

3. Accounts created by county and age group

4. Number of unique website visits

5. Call Center – Number of calls

6. Marketplace Assister – In Person Meetings by Organization

Similar information is being reported by other state based exchanges such as Washington, Maryland, Connecticut, Kentucky, and Rhode Island.

Consumer Outreach

The Connector announced that 34 community organizations were awarded $6.7 million for outreach efforts to individuals and small business owners. As of October 17, 2013, the Connector website only identified 12 community organizations. Where are the rest of these organizations? With the complexity of the website and health plans, consumers need all the help they can get. What are these organizations doing to reach out to the uninsured in their communities?

Website Improvement

Today’s Connector website now contains plans and rates. However, website navigation is cumbersome. Consumers have been shut out from the initial design of the website. Now that the website is running the Board needs to set up a process to collect public input and report back to the public. In recent weeks public input to the Board has been limited with the cancellation of the last Board meeting and Consumer Outreach meeting.. Examples of improvements necessary are:

1. Streamline the application process. It can take a consumer 30 to 45 minutes to complete the application. The length and detail on the application discourages the completion of an application. Once the application is submitted there is at least an overnight wait for determination of Medicaid eligibility or financial assistance.

2. Improved website usability with a navigational roadmap so that the user does not need to guess how to proceed. The website homepage (Screenshot A) tells the consumer to “Get started with your application,” when the consumer may in fact only want to browse the plans and rates.

3. There should be a “Sign-In” button on the main screen (Screenshot A). An individual with a user name/password is not provided any direction as to where to find the “sign in” button.

4. There is no simple way to “browse” for plans and rates. To browse for plans and rates a consumer needs to find the appropriate page (Screenshot B) and go to the question “Am I eligible?” The consumer the needs to select “Find out now” button to browse health plans.

5. The webpage containing plans and rates (screenshot C) also includes a “Quality Rating” for each plan. Our understanding is that Quality Ratings are not available but have been defaulted to “4” which is the highest quality rating. This is misleading and unfair to any plan that is not part of the Connector website. The Quality Rating should instead be “NA.” We strongly recommend the inclusion of quality ratings sooner than later.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony.

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PDF: Full AARP Presentation including additional slides.