Connector in customer service crisis at critical time
Photo | Antonio Caban, SHNS
Health Connector Exec. Dir. Gutierrez briefs media during a meeting prior to the pandemic.
At a critical juncture, the state vendor charged with handling annual health insurance enrollment inquiries is faltering, prompting the Massachusetts Health Connector to agree to spend millions of dollars more to try to salvage customer services operations this fall.
Faneuil, the call center vendor, is experiencing "issues across the board," including agent absenteeism and problems with attrition, recruitment and training, according to Connector Authority Director Louis Gutierrez. That has translated into dropped calls, dissatisfaction with the quality of answers to consumer questions, and longer wait times for consumers who are abandoning calls out of frustration, according to authority officials.
The timing of the problems is also problematic, with the Connector expecting a surge in consumer calls during an open enrollment period that begins Nov. 1 and ends Jan. 23, 2021. Rising unemployment is fueling consumer interest in health insurance options, and the pandemic means the authority's walk-in centers in Boston, Springfield, Worcester and Brockton will not be open due to COVID-19 transmission concerns - the centers closed in March.
"Our customer service is in need of significant operational repair and additional support in a number of areas, which is unexepected I think, after five years of improvements, to end up back in this place," Gutierrez said at a virtual Connector Board meeting Thursday morning.
"These guys are not ready for prime time," added board member Dmitri Petion. "It seems like they're not quite ready for this engagement because they're not able to scale and they don't have the management structure to support the needs of the Connector."
Another board memer, Rina Vertes, described it as a "crisis situation."
"It seems pretty clear that there are not a lot of ideal options here," said board member Matthew Veno. Addressing Gutierrez, Veno said, "There's an enormous amount of work that you and your team and the teams of the vendors here will have to do in the next three weeks."
Costly remedies
Authority officials said Faneuil's contract calls for it to be paid at least $16.3 million in fiscal 2021, but spending on customer service will be rising in the near term due to the board's vote Thursday to contract with Accenture for management oversight and 100 additional call center employees this fall.
The board agreed to a contract with Accenture to supplement customer service staff for the duration of the upcoming open enrollment period. The $3.7 million contract begins Friday and runs through Jan. 31, 2021, and it includes a one-time "mobilization fee" of $250,000.
On Sept. 21, the Connector agreed to spend no more than $249,000 on Accenture to onboard its management to supplement Faneil staff. A separate contract authorization agreed to Thursday calls for up to $1.8 million in additional spending for management support services through Jan. 15, 2021.
Based on discussions with Faneuil executives, Gutierrez said he believed the company underestimated the complexity of dealing with the Connector's offerings and "circumstances" and that the company was "much more comfortable" working in a bricks and mortar environment, rather than the remote setups forced in March by COVID-19. The company had been building out call center facilities in Kentucky and Connecticut to facilitate its work for the Connector, he said.
"I don't think they were well prepared to manage a remote call center," he said.
Board member Michael Chernew said there's a stark deadline facing the Connector.
"We have basically three weeks to be ready for open enrollment and that has to be the priority," Chernew said.
Gutierrez said he anticipated discussions with Faneuil about holding them accountable for deficiencies in contract delivery. He outlined a scenario in which Faneuil is able to stabilize its operations but also said the Connector would weigh "next steps" with Faneuil after the open enrollment period.
"Faneuil has continued to express their own corporate commitment to succeed and stabilize," he said.
According to the Connector, about 56,000 people in Massachusetts have lost commercial health insurance coverage since April, with some moving to Medicaid or Medicare, individual market plans or remaining uninsured. Officials are also monitoring uncertainty over evictions and the fate of the Affordable Care Act.
When it hired Faneuil in August 2019, the Connector cited the company's experience working with state health insurance exchanges in California, Washington, Minnesota and Connecticut and its ability to improve customer interaction platforms. Noting a need to handle a million phone calls a year, the Connector said Faneuil would come up with new ways to deliver information and help with coverage for 300,000 health and dental insurance members.
Faneuil officials could not be reached for comment and did not respond to an email inquiry.
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