Thousands of Covered California Enrollment Helpers, Agents Await Certification

The California Primary Care Association says workers affiliated with health centers are desperate to get authorization to start signing people up.

But Director Carmela Castellano-Garcia says there have been many barriers.

“We have ninety percent who are somewhere being held up and are currently not certified although they want to be. And we feel that is really an unacceptable situation,” says Castellano-Garcia.

Castellano-Garcia says enrollment counselor training could have happened sooner.

She says background checks are taking two to three weeks.

What’s more, she says, when the counselors have completed those steps, state computer glitches are holding up authorization.

“All these barriers are adding up where we have a lot of people out there ready to go who are not authorized,” says Castello-Garcia.

Covered California says a lot of enrollment training is happening this month, and that should help accelerate the certification process.