Covered California Back Online After Fixing Technical Glitches

On Wednesday morning, Covered California's online enrollment option was re-launched after being shut down to fix technical issues, AP/U-T San Diego reports (Olson, AP/U-T San Diego, 10/2).

Details of Exchange Launch

The online health insurance exchange opened for enrollment at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.

However, the exchange's home page took several minutes to load later in the day, and continued delays were reported throughout the enrollment process.

In a brief statement Tuesday night, exchange officials announced that the site would be taken offline until Wednesday morning for upgrades that "will help optimize performance for the millions of people expected to log in to use the enrollment function in the future" (California Healthline, 10/2).

Enrollment Resumes

Roy Kennedy -- a spokesperson for Covered California -- said technicians fixed problems with the site, such as:

• Some Web pages loading slowly; and
• Logos for certain insurance plans not displaying correctly.

Kennedy said that the enrollment portal was back online by Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. and noted that consumers still were able to browse coverage options while problems were being addressed (AP/U-T San Diego, 10/2).

Delays Continue

However, a consolidated directory of doctors and hospitals affiliated with each exchange plan -- which officials said would be released Wednesday -- has not yet been posted.

In addition, a list of certified insurance and enrollment agents also has not yet been posted.

Larry Hicks -- a spokesperson for the exchange -- did not provide a specific date for when such information would be available, saying that the list of affiliated providers would be uploaded when website traffic has slowed (Seipel, San Jose Mercury News, 10/2).

Exchange Website Traffic

By Tuesday afternoon, Covered California had received:

• 19,000 calls to its call center; and
• 5.7 million page views on its website.

Covered California officials said they will provide numbers next week on the volume of calls and visits that the exchange received in its first week of operation.

An exchange spokesperson said that officials will not know until mid-November the total number of residents who enrolled in exchange policies the first week (AP/U-T San Diego, 10/2).