UPDATE 2/17/2015 10:10 a.m.: The health insurance enrollment continuation scheduled for Feb. 17 has been cancelled due to weather conditions and government closure. It has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 18 from 1 to 8 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (901 G Street NW). Residents are urged to bring all of the items needed to complete enrollment. The enrollment checklist is available at DCHealthLink.com/checklist.
WASHINGTON — If you live in the District of Columbia and worry that your application for the D.C. Health Exchange didn’t go through before the deadline of Feb. 15, fear not. The enrollment process for those who were in the middle of getting signed up is continuing.
Officials with D.C. Health Link say high demand for in-person help, heavy call volume, and inclement weather made getting through all the applications for the D.C. Health Link program impossible. As a result of the weekend weather, two sign-up sites were closed over the weekend, so consumers were redirected to other sign-up centers.
Weather permitting, in-person assistance for those trying to complete their enrollment will be going on Tuesday at the Martin Luther King Library (MLK) at 901 G Street NW from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. If the snow storm shuts down local government, the date will simply be shifted to Wednesday, Feb. 18, at the same location and same hours.
Mila Kofman, Executive Director of the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority says this is not an extension, but a continuation for anyone who was in the process of getting enrolled. Who should follow up?
- Anyone who started their application but didn’t have a chance to finish
- Anyone who needed in-person help and couldn’t get it
- Anyone who tried calling D.C.’s contact center and couldn’t get through
- Anyone who ran into tech issues and couldn’t finish their online applications.
Kofman says there was a mix of conditions that made it impossible to process all the applications by Feb. 15. She says it wasn’t mainly a computer glitch, but there were problems for some users.
“There is no system out there that is glitch-free,” says Kofman.
Now, the focus is on making sure everyone who wants health insurance coverage can get it.
“When we see any kind of issue, we find it and we fix it. That’s our approach,” says Kofman.
For more information about where to go and what you will need to complete your application, visit D.C. Health Link’s website.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
