Washington Health Benefit Exchange

Washington Coalition on Medicaid Outreach (WCOMO) Meeting

September 2014

Don AlbrightAssociate Director of Call Center Operations

Call Center Operational Overview

Preparing for Enrollment

• Capacity Planning Assumptions

• Staffing Planning

• Facilities Planning

• What actually happened

• Lessons learned

• Differences to expect in November

2

Spokane Call Center

▪ Staffed 80 full time Customer Service Representatives

• Capacity to handle 2,000 – 2,500 calls per day

• Included work unrelated to the phones (e.g., e-mails, time off, meetings, training, etc.)

• Time off

Overflow Call Center

▪ Trained part time Customer Service Representatives

• 60 Customer Service Representatives trained and ready to use by October 1st if call capacity is reached in Spokane

3

The Original Staffing Plan

Assumptions

38%

30%

31%

1%Online In Person Assisters By Phone Mail or Fax

7 minute average talk time7 Minute Average Talk Time

Capacity Planning

5

• Design of the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) allows us to separate the less complex calls from the rest.

• Allows training to be broken down to train new staff focused only on the less complex calls.

• Have the ability to rapidly deploy new staff if there was an immediate need.

6

Contingency Plans

Original Staffing and Facilities

7

Spokane WA80 Full Time CSRs

Martinsville VA60 Part Time CSRs

Overflow Calls

Consumers contacting the Exchange

Planned Actual

38% Online Very few people were able to complete their application without some kind of assistance from HBE

31% by Phone Almost everyone called us, including Brokers and In Person Assisters

30% In Person AssistersMany people worked with IPAs and Brokers, but the

system issues made it difficult for people to complete their applications

1% Mail or Fax Many people including IPAs and Brokers mailed us applications thinking we could complete them

7 Minute Average Talk Time The actual talk times averaged 22 minutes

What Actually Happened

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What Actually Happened

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Expanded Staffing and Facilities

Orlando FL115 CSRs

Martinsville VA100 CSRs Hampton VA

100 CSRs

Spokane WA 200 CSRS

Overflow Calls

Open Enrollment Totals

Total Calls 2,493,621

Spanish 73,880

Other Language Calls 17,512

Handled Calls 584,805

Deferred Calls 1,760,214

Overall initial Wait Time Average 5.5 minutes

Wait Time Average Internal Queues 52.5 minutes

Open Enrollment Totals 10/1 – 3/31

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

Total Calls 169,199 240,650 832,341 753,531 190,068 307,832

Spanish 7,208 11,581 13,302 10,118 5,529 16,142

Other Language Calls 3,126 3,621 5,003 1,479 2,794 1,489

Handled Calls 47,322 34,612 66,714 106,979 143,289 185,889

Deferred Calls 77,140 171,591 724,513 635,427 37,924 113,619

Overall Initial Wait Time Average 19.3 Min 23 Min 12.5 Min 2.2 Min 1.3 Min 1.1 Min

Wait Time Average Internal Queues N/A N/A 23.7 Min 40 Min 49 Min 73.4 Min

Average CSRs on Staff 161 292 369 409 515 438

Open Enrollment Monthly Breakdown

Consider possibility of system issues that would drive more people to the call center

Create contingency plans to include extra high volume scenarios

Consider a larger facility with growth space

Over estimate the amount of question calls

▪ Build out network

13

Lessons Learned

▪ Reduce talk times

▪ Ensure there are enough circuits

▪ Offer call back on all calls

▪ Train ramp up staff on all work queues

14

Differences to Expect in November

Questions?