State of the Art Center Will Help with Historic Mission of Enrolling Californians in Affordable Health Care
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Covered California announced today it
has partnered with Contra Costa County to manage one of three service centers.
Contra Costa will operate a county-based service center which will handle calls and
questions from Californians throughout the state. The center in Contra Costa county
will be designed to help Californians understand the new benefits available
through the Affordable Care Act and help consumers with on-line purchasing of
Covered California health insurance products. Other center locations to be
staffed by State of California employees, will be announced in the coming
months. All centers will be fully operational for open enrollment this fall, in
advance of the new coverage that starts January 1, 2014.
“While all Californians will benefit, more than 5.3 million
will be eligible for coverage through Covered California under the historic
federal Affordable Care Act starting in2014, and half of those will be eligible
for financial support from the federal government,” said Covered California
Executive Director Peter V. Lee. “We need to have skilled customer care
representatives helping individuals and small employers sort through the ways
they can benefit from the federal support and understand the new rules. Contra
Costa County is a great partner to join us in this historic mission because of
their long history of providing first-class service through a call center
environment.”
Using state-of-the art technology, the center will offer
comprehensive, integrated and streamlined services and employ approximately 200
local residents. County staff will be trained to be expert resources and answer
questions from consumers, refer consumers to resources, or offer Web-based
“chat” advice.
All three service centers will include agents that speak English
and Spanish, as well as a mix of staff who speak some of California’s most
common languages such as Cantonese and Vietnamese. In addition, the service
centers will be able to refer other languages to a third party language
telephone line service.
“Skilled and responsive experts will be critical to achieving
our goal of maximizing enrollment of eligible individuals and small businesses and
reducing the number of uninsured Californians,” said Diana Dooley, Board Chair
of Covered California. “We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Contra Costa
County in this critically important mission.”
About Covered California
California was the first state to create a health benefit exchange
following the passage of federal health care reform. Covered California is
charged with creating a new insurance marketplace in which individuals and small
businesses can get access to health insurance. With coverage starting in 2014,
Covered California will help individuals compare and choose a health plan that
works best for their health needs and budget. Financial help will be available
from the federal government to help lower costs for people who qualify on a
sliding scale. Small businesses will be able to purchase competitively priced
health plans and offer their employees the ability to choose from an array of
plans and may qualify for federal tax credits. Covered California is an independent
part of the state government whose job is to make the new market work for California’s
consumers. It is overseen by a five-member board appointed by the Governor and
Legislature.
For more information on Covered California, please visit
www.CoveredCA.com.
The following is a statement from Federal Glover, Chair of
the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors:
“We're glad that the state recognizes Contra Costa's central
location makes it an ideal site for the call center with equal access to the
Bay Area, Northern California and the Central Valley. The county's
linguistically diverse work force will be able to play an important role in
bringing health care to all Californians."
