Roughly 5,000 Assister Programs helped Americans select plans and apply for financial subsidies during the Affordable Care Act's third open enrollment period, according to a 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation survey.
The online survey was conducted from Feb. 11 to March 4 as the third open enrollment period concluded. All Assister Programs were invited to participate.
Here are nine key findings from the survey:
1. Assister Programs helped some 5.3 million consumers select plans and apply for financial subsidies during the ACA's third open enrollment period, a 10 percent decrease from last year. The percentage drop could have been caused by a decrease in first time enrollees, public awareness, limited resources and complex application processes, according to the report.
2. Roughly a third of Assister Programs helped new consumers to the marketplace. This is a decrease from last year, when over half of all Assister Programs consulted new consumers.
3. Assister Programs are increasingly seeing a mixture of new and renewing consumers, which suggests assistance is needed past first time enrollment. However, the majority of clients are uninsured when they seek help, which could mean they lost coverage in the year, the report states.
4. Thirty-seven percent of Assister Programs surveyed said a majority of consumers presented questions that were unanswered by information on the ACA website. In addition, 61 percent of Assister Programs said almost all customers did not understand basic insurance concepts.
5. A quarter of Assister Programs helped 80 percent of all consumers. In comparison, some 30 percent of Assister Programs saw 100 consumers or fewer in the third open enrollment, these small caseloads only representing 1 percent of all assisted consumers.
6. The programs continue to see capacity shortages, as 21 percent of Assister Programs had to deny consumers during rush periods. This did not change from 2015.
7. It takes an average of an hour and a half for Assister Programs to help first-time enrollees and an hour to assist renewals, according to the report. In addition, nearly 230,000 consumers were helped by Assister Programs in relation to identity proofing issues.
8. Assister Programs said Medicaid transfers continued to challenge them, specifically in the federal exchange.
9. Overall, 65 percent of Assister Programs said the ACA's third open enrollment went smoother than the previous one.