Why health exchange is scrambling to open call center in tax season

By Jackie Valley

Friday, March 13, 2015 | 2 a.m.

The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange is hurrying to open a Consumer Assistance Center by April 1 to field consumers’ tax-related questions, officials announced during a board meeting Thursday.

The reason for the rush: Xerox, the tech firm that built faulty software for Nevada Health Link, likely will shut down its call center March 31.

Xerox’s call center has been receiving 50 calls a day about 1095-A forms, which consumers who purchased health plans through the federal marketplace in 2014 need to file their taxes this year. The tax forms validate that consumers did, in fact, have health insurance last year, as required by the Affordable Care Act, and show how much federal subsidy they received each month.

On Jan. 30, Xerox mailed the 1095-A forms to almost 30,000 Nevada households, and it sent corrected forms to 209 households earlier this month, said Laura Rich, project management officer for the exchange. A second round of corrected forms will be mailed around March 17.

“The exchange has requested that the Xerox call center remain open and staffed to assist Nevadans during the final two weeks (of tax season),” Rich said.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer said Xerox has provided the exchange with proposals to keep it open, but is waiting on a response.

"The Exchange needs to make some decisions so we can determine how we will proceed, but we are committed to ensuring there are no avoidable disruptions for Nevadans during tax season," Wasmer said.

The call center is the latest struggle the exchange has encountered during its tempestuous relationship with Xerox, which the state fired in May after the disastrous rollout of the state-run exchange. Now, Nevada has a state-based exchange that uses the federal healthcare.gov platform for enrollment.

But the state’s dealings with Xerox haven’t ended because the tech contractor still needs to transfer enrollment data to the exchange.

The exchange is acting on the assumption that Xerox won’t agree to keep its call center open longer without charging the state steep fees, hence the need for the Consumer Assistance Center to be operational by April 1. The center’s staff will be trained on 1095-A forms.

Xerox verbally informed the exchange that if its call center closes March 31, it would provide analysts to aid the Consumer Assistance Center staff with research, Rich said. There is still confusion, however, over how that would work.

Bruce Gilbert, executive director of the exchange, said the Consumer Assistance Center would have 10 staff members fielding calls, if needed. But it’s crucial Xerox provides analyst assistance because the exchange has no independent way of accessing the information stored in the tech company’s software system, which is needed to help consumers, he said.

“I’m not worried about the phone calls,” Gilbert told the board. “Am I worried about the vendor partner being able to give us the timely information we need? I am.”

The exchange is continuing to nag Xerox about providing contacts who can be reached by phone or email in a guaranteed timeframe to answer questions that arise when consumers call the Consumer Assistance Center with concerns, said Damon Haycock, chief operation officer of the exchange.

“The last thing we want to do is leave it in their hands to determine how best to serve Nevadans,” Haycock said. “We are rigorously working with Xerox to nail down what resources will be available so that our navigators and Consumer Assistance Center can be successful assisting Nevadans with their 1095-A forms.”