By Staci Matlock
The New Mexican
Santa Fe County residents call and visit by the dozens, angry and frustrated at a federal health exchange system that has perplexed people across the country. Christina Herrera calmly answers their questions, sometimes taking a half-hour or longer to guide them through the process.
Herrera is one of more than 290 trained guides standing by at 160 sites around New Mexico to answer questions about the state’s expanded Medicaid program and the new federal health insurance exchange. Because the online federal exchange has been plagued with technical problems since it launched Oct. 1, the guides aren’t yet enrolling people in new insurance plans, but they do help prepare online applications, and they can help consumers determine how much they can expect to pay for premiums.
Herrera and other guides have been busy taking phone calls and fielding visits from people loaded with questions.
“A lot of people don’t understand the [insurance cancellation] letters they’re getting and what it means,” Herrera said recently from her La Familia cubicle on Alto Street. “A lot of them are panicked at first.”
The guides are certified through the federal government and state insurance companies to help people navigate the new health insurance exchange. They are also called in-person assisters.
Herrera is one of 23 guides at four La Familia facilities in Santa Fe. La Familia’s clinics provide medical, dental and behavioral health services and health care for the homeless.
La Familia guides are currently taking individual applications for the state’s expanded Medicaid program and helping people explore the federal health exchange. “We see 12 to 20 people a day at the main facility on Alto Street,” said Herrera, 34.
They get about the same number of phone calls each day from frustrated people with health exchange questions, she said.
Herrera thinks the system will improve with time. “They’re discouraging us right now from taking personal applications,” she said, adding that applications for Medicaid under the expanded system are “processing very well.”
She said people do get frustrated with the new health insurance process. A guide’s job is to try to make the health exchange process less confusing and direct people more quickly to the best possible program or tell them what information they need to have available when they apply. She said a majority of people who call La Familia qualify for the state’s Medicaid program, Centennial Care. Others may qualify for Medicare.
Guides also are helping people fill out an online calculator on the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange that can give them an idea how much their premiums will cost. The guides also help with another calculator that determines whether a person qualifies for tax subsidies to help pay premiums.
Debra Hammer, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange, said guides have to complete the certification training offered by the federal government before they can enroll individuals for health insurance. And they receive training from insurance companies and other groups as the need arises, she said. “They also meet weekly to discuss any updates, new tools or process adjustments.”
The training takes about 20 hours on 26 different modules, Herrera said. “A lot of it was reading and then testing at the end of each module,” she said. “We also have attended events that offered additional training.”
New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange call center staff are available to assist people toll-free at 855-99-NMHIX. A list of sites with health care guides is available at bewellnn.com.
Insurance brokers also can help with the health insurance exchange. Their services are free. Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico, Lovelace, Molina, New Mexico Health Connections and Presbyterian Healthcare Services all are offering plans through the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange.
Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com. Follow her on Twitter @stacimatlock.
Photo: Health guide Christina Herrera, left, helps Marina Estrada enroll in an insurance plan with Centennial HealthCare Corp. through the federal health exchange website during a recent consultation at La Familia Medical Center. Jane Phillips/The New MexicanHealth guide Christina Herrera, left, works with Marina Estrada on enrolling in the state’s Medicaid program, Centennial Care earlier this month at La Familia Medical Center. Jane Phillips/The New Mexican