HealthCare.gov managers expect to work with 90,000 agents

The federal agency that oversees HealthCare.gov now expects to work with about 90,000 agents and brokers each year, up from 54,000 in 2021.

The agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, expects to work with about 20 big web broker entities, or the kinds of wholesalers that can connect directly with HealthCare.gov information systems.

The number of big web brokers is down from 30.

Officials estimate that the time of wages and fringe benefits for the retail health insurance products is worth an average of $56.80 per hour, and they estimate that the time of the people who help the web brokers handle paperwork is also worth $56.80 per hour.

CMS gives those numbers in a new report it prepared to show how much burden its information collection efforts, such as routine efforts to get agents’ and brokers’ names and addresses, might impose on the people and companies that work with HealthCare.gov.

In one section of the report, for example, it estimates that about 1% of the agents and brokers who go through the agent training program will respond to the notice that asks system users for feedback on their training; that the producers who respond will spend an average of 0.17 hours writing a response; and that the total burden of giving training program managers feedback will be $8,694.

Congress created the framework for HealthCare.gov in the two federal laws that created the Affordable Care Act.

The ACA public exchange system is supposed to help people use federal premium tax credit subsidies to buy individual and small-group health insurance policies, or qualified health plans, online.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia run their own exchange programs.

Related: Fewer people buying off-Marketplace coverage, study finds

CMS provides full or partial exchange services for the residents of 32 states through HealthCare.gov, which is also known as the Marketplace.