Health Connector director to revamp marketing effort

The head of the Hawaii Health Connector is revamping its marketing and public awareness campaign in anticipation of a surge in health insurance sign-ups in March.

Tom Matsuda, interim director of the state’s online health insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act, told Connector board members Friday that he has stopped network television commercials and print advertisements and is working on a more targeted community-based ad campaign to make better use of its $204.3 million in federal funds.

"The marketing plan in place when I started was not satisfactory for me. It didn’t strategically address our enrollment push," said Matsuda, who became interim director in December following the abrupt resignation of its first executive director, Coral Andrews. "We tried to reset how we’re coordinating the enrollment push and the messaging that goes with it. I thought they were off. I’m trying to make the enrollment push much more focused leading up to March 31 and taking much more of a grass-roots approach."

Most Americans must purchase health insurance by March 31 or face tax penalties.

Matsuda said the Connector also will focus more on social media, with direct emails and posts on social networks such as Instagram. He said he plans to increase call center employees, currently numbered at 40, as it gets closer to the end of open enrollment. Consumers must enroll in health plans by March 15 to get coverage on April 1.

Meanwhile, efforts are underway to fix technical problems, including long wait times between page clicks and system glitches that have plagued the Connector since it launched Oct. 15.

"Obviously, we want to fix that," Matsuda said. "There have been a lot of reports of the system not working. The system is working. It is accurately doing calculations for (tax credits) and accurately displaying plans and rates. What’s lacking now is performance in terms of time. It isn’t necessarily user-friendly in many aspects."

As of Jan. 18 the Connector enrolled 3,126 people, though 13,000 applicants were deemed eligible for tax credits to reduce the cost of coverage. Of the 373 small-business groups that applied, only 75 employers were enrolled with 307 workers selecting plans.

Hawaii’s version of the federally mandated marketplace designed to match low-income residents with subsidized health insurance got off to a rough start, missing its Oct. 1 launch date by two weeks after a slow marketing campaign.

Matsuda met with board members a day after lawmakers introduced a package of bills aimed at fixing the troubled health insurance marketplace, including a proposal to turn it into a state agency.