Xerox’s call center will stay open longer than expected

Nevadans who call the state health insurance exchange through Tax Day will hear a familiar voice on the other end of the line.

Xerox, the vendor for Nevada Health Link’s first enrollment session, has agreed to keep its call center open two weeks beyond its originally scheduled closing date of Tuesday.

About 90 percent of the company’s duties through April 15 will involve correcting and reissuing flawed premium tax-credit forms issued in January, said Bruce Gilbert, the exchange’s executive director. The other 10 percent will involve working to resolve problem cases in which software glitches and an incomplete website build kept consumers from getting coverage for which they paid.

Xerox spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer said calls on 2014 policies “have stopped almost completely” as those policies expired and were replaced with 2015 policies sold through healthcare.gov.

The Review-Journal continues to receive periodic emails from consumers facing 2014 medical bills they say should have been covered by the plan they paid for.

“We are turning around our work quickly, but resolution to many issues requires the support and assistance of the insurance carriers,” Wasmer said. “The exchange is responsible for getting the carriers to participate fully. For its part, Xerox staff will continue to provide the highest level of professionalism and teamwork.”

It’s unclear even to exchange officials just how much work is left to be done.

On the tax-form side, several hundred fixed forms have been sent to consumers, Gilbert said. But no one knows how many forms had issues in the first place.

Nevada Health Link sent out 30,000 IRS 1095-A forms, which state how much of a premium tax credit exchange enrollees can receive. Some forms list inaccurate coverage dates that may mean higher tax bills for some. Xerox and the health link were tracking as many as 10,000 troubled cases — about a third of the customer base — as of a year ago, but that total had dropped to 700 by December.

Other state exchanges and the federal marketplace have reported that at least 10 percent of the forms they issued had mistakes.

Gilbert said he’s too “uncomfortable” with the data Xerox has provided to estimate how many tax-credit forms still need fixing.

It’s the same scenario with unresolved problem cases, Gilbert said.

“It sort of harkens back to the data, and whether we’re comfortable with the numbers that (Xerox) indicates have been resolved,” Gilbert said. “I can’t give you a number, but I will tell you that any consumer who has been affected, that case will be brought to closure one way or another. Through Xerox’s efforts or ours, no one will drop off the face of the Earth.”

Those efforts will shift completely to Nevada Health Link on April 16, when Xerox’s 30-employee call center in Henderson closes. In its place, the exchange will staff a 10-person call center at its Carson City offices. The contact number, 855-768-5465, will be the same.

But it may take months for Xerox and the exchange to completely sever ties. Gilbert said there’s no scheduled date for the “official parting of the ways,” a “fairly complex process” that involves shifting Xerox’s paper and electronic policy files over to exchange control. The IRS, for example, was at exchange offices Tuesday discussing when, how or if Xerox’s tax-credit data will move to the health link.

Xerox “remains committed to the exchange and Nevadans for as smooth a wind down of operations as possible,” Wasmer said.

Gilbert added that “the bulk of problems” will be fixed by the time Xerox and the exchange have separated for good.

The state awarded Xerox a $72 million contract in 2012 for the 2013 build of Nevada Health Link’s online insurance marketplace, but exchange officials began withholding payments as technical glitches and consumer complaints mounted in 2014.

Through Tuesday, the state had paid Xerox $17.9 million of its original contract.

Damon Haycock, the exchange’s chief operating officer, said in a March board meeting that keeping Xerox’s call center open through April 15 would cost hundreds of thousands of additional dollars. Gilbert didn’t have an updated cost on Tuesday.

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @J_Robison1