Nothing like a hard and fast deadline...

At 1:51 this afternoon, an email arrived from CoveredCA keeping enrollment open until Midnight, December 21.  I'm not really surprised, given the number of error messages I saw while trying to enroll people. 

URGENT! You Have Extra Time to Help Consumers Complete Enrollment for January 1^st! 

Given the high volume of Californians interested in enrolling in health coverage, we’re pleased to announce that Covered California has decided to give our service partners additional time to help consumers get across the finish line and complete enrollment. Service partners will have until midnight on Sunday, December 21, 2014 to assist consumers with enrollment. This applies to both new and renewing consumers enrolling for coverage effective January 1, 2015.

Please note that while the Agent Service Center will now be open this Sunday, Dec. 21st (see below for hours), the Covered California Service Center for consumers will be closed this Sunday. You are encouraged to assist consumers with completing their applications as early this week as possible to ensure you receive the assistance you may need from our service center representatives.

While you and your consumers are given the extra time, we would appreciate your help in communicating expectations: completing enrollment after December 15th may delay invoices and proof of enrollment from the health plan the consumer has chosen.  We encourage all consumers to make a binder payment when possible to facilitate faster enrollment in their chosen plan. 

We will be providing further information about payment deadlines as soon as possible. 
In order to accommodate this change within the system, we will be taking the online system down starting midnight tonight until approximately 7 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 16. 

If you should need immediate assistance, please call the Agent Service Center at (877) 453-9198. This is the most effective way to reach a service center representative for an urgent need related to enrollment. If you should receive a busy signal when calling, please hang up and try again.   

I can only imagine what the faces look like inside the various carrier's service departments.