Hawaii Health Connector’s problems persist at start of open enrollment

Kelli Lundgren tried Saturday to enroll in medical coverage on the Hawaii Health Connector but repeatedly got an "unexpected error" message.

The situation is familiar to the 54-year-old South Maui resident, who tried to sign up a year ago only to be left frustrated and looking elsewhere for coverage.

"I was so excited on Saturday to get back on and try. I was sure they got out all the bugs," said Lundgren, who’s had an individual health insurance policy for 20 years. "I’m so excited about this system, but it’s not working."

Lundgren said she paid upward of $800 to $1,000 a month for coverage before the Affordable Care Act took effect Jan. 1 and now pays $383 monthly for herself and her college-age son.

"I am a person who really loves this Obama­care," she said. "I so badly want this to work."

Open enrollment on the Connector, the online insurance marketplace created by the ACA, also known as Obama­care, started Saturday and runs until Feb. 15. The previous open enrollment ended April 30.

The exchange, which received $204.3 million in federal grants, has been plagued with problems from its inception, enrolling just 10,800 people after a series of computer glitches and a late start in October 2013. This is the first time consumers are able to re-enroll on the exchange.

"We are finding errors — I’m not going to tell you we’re not. Anything this complicated is going to have errors," said Jeff Kissel, the Connector’s executive director, adding that at last count programmers identified fewer than 20 defects. "When we find them, we have a process to log it and correct it."

Among the issues are log-in problems for returning consumers who applied last year but made a change this year to their accounts.

"If we have your Social Security number from last year and the same number this year, our system creates an error message that requires you to call in," he said. "It’s fixed within a phone call in less than a minute."

There are about 18,000 to 20,000 old accounts that the Connector plans to "clean up" in about a week or so to address the problem, Kissel said, adding that he opted to defer data cleanup until he was sure the system was stable and fully functional.

Also over the weekend, people who were trying to call the Connector complained that they couldn’t get through or the call center was closed, Kissel said.

"I called them myself," he said. "I found out a lot of them were trying to call Kolea (the Medicaid number). They were confusing Kolea and our kokua (help line), so we’ve got to address that."

The Connector’s call center is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The call center can be reached at 877-628-5076.

Kissel acknowledged that another obstacle to increasing enrollment is that the system is unable to accept applications via tablet or smartphone, an issue that will be fixed once "we’re sure everything else is working."

As of noon Monday the Connector estimates it enrolled about 260 people.

Doug Levin, a 51-year-old Maui certified public accountant, also unsuccessfully tried to buy insurance on the exchange over the weekend and on Monday. After logging into the site, instead of acknowledging his username, the system would start all over again, he said.

"That’s the first hint something is wrong with their site," he said. "It could’ve been a temporary glitch or more permanent glitch. Whoever’s doing it for them got paid an awful lot of money and is not doing a very good job. The basic log-in procedures don’t work. Who’s asleep at the wheel?"

Despite the issues, the system’s overall functionality is working, Kissel said.

"Anyone who needs to go online can get online, or if they need assistance, we’re answering all calls at the call center in less than 10 seconds," he said. "That’s my requirement. We have people testing the system, creating new accounts every day all day."

Programmers have fixed four data issues and are working on two more internally, Kissel said.

"It’s a lot deeper than a website," he said. "We integrate with insurance companies, the Social Security Adminstration and (Department of Human Services). All of those systems need to be fully functional all the time, or else there can be delays."

Levin wasn’t pleased.

"I figured they had nine months to get it together and solve their problems," he said. "I support the ACA and think it’s absolutely necessary. It just sort of saddened me that the actual rollout of the website is so poor. If the programmer was in front of me right now, I’d be chewing him out. I just wonder where all that money went. That’s a lot of money to be unable to build a basic, functioning website."

CORRECTION: The Connector’s online system is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. An earlier version of this story said it was open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.