Connect for Health Colorado, the state's health insurance exchange, plans to cut the number of in-person assistance sites across the state by roughly half this year, said Luke Clarke, an exchange spokesman.
The sites feature trained guides who can help people navigate the website, but cannot offer advice on which insurance plans to choose. They have been critical in helping people - many of whom were uninsured - understand the nuances and terminology associated with the state's new marketplace. They also helped consumers during a string of technology issues that have affected the exchange's website and the Medicaid enrollment process.
In the Pikes Peak region, Peak Vista Community Health Centers will continue to host enrollment assistance - albeit without financial assistance from the exchange. Several other medical providers across the region also have enrollment specialists, which also are not paid for by the exchange.
But a site at the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments will not re-open for open enrollment, which begins Nov. 1 and allows people to begin shopping for health insurance coverage for 2016.
From Oct. 1, 2014 through Feb 15, 2015, 788 people sought assistance from its health coverage guides, the agency said.
But it was offered $140,000 by the exchange to operate the site during the upcoming open enrollment session - a 44-percent drop from the previous year - while being asked to expand services to Teller County, said Rachel Beck, a spokeswoman for the agency.
Given the lower funding level, the agency decided to stop hosting the site.
"We had some good customer satisfaction ratings, and we would have wanted to maintain that standard," Beck said.
The cutbacks follow a similar trend across the state.
In all, funding for assistance sites will drop from $8.15 million each of the past two years to $3 million this year.
On average, the exchange spent $5.9 million the past two years on assistance sites across the state. That funding dropped to $500,000 for the current fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30, 2016, Clarke said.
The Colorado Health Foundation has also helped fund the program, offering an average of $2.25 million each of the first two years. They increased their contribution this year to $2.5 million.
Clarke said the cutbacks were expected, given that federal funding to establish the exchange has ended, and that more people are familiar with how to shop for insurance.
The exchange will more strategically target its funding to areas with more people who are uninsured, such as the Denver metro area, he said.
In the meantime, he suggested shoppers seek help from insurance brokers, who can offer advice on which plans best fit shoppers' needs. The brokers are free to consumers because insurance carriers pay them without assessing extra fees to consumers, Clarke said.
"We don't have to have as many conversations on what the exchange is," Clarke said. "The conversations are more about how to choose your coverage."
©2015 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
