Why I Just Fired HealthSherpa

[kgmom219]

If you have spent anytime around here, you know that I have been a staunch supporter of the Sherp.

It was a very user friendly platform, they were responsive to issues, corrected items when asked and just an all around nice option during OEP.

Due to some of their reporting capabilities, I put all possible clients with the Sherp, so they were in one place. That includes non-subsidy clients.

That ended in the last 48 hours.

Welltheos and ACA are both up with 2017 plans/rates. Its been 48 hours since they went live and the Sherp still can't get it together. I have sent 3 emails and was never given a straight answer. THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE. The best I got was "by Nov 1"

I can deal with "we are working on it". I could even deal with "the system crashed and we working round the clock to get it done". But Chris seems to think that its not critical and has "relayed my urgency to the tech team". SERIOUSLY???

I'm 2 weeks in to O65 AEP. I've got 20+ groups to get renewed in the next 8 weeks and ACA starts on Tuesday. I'm running 12 appts a day and Chris got his feelings hurt, because I used a four letter word. Man up. Its 4th quarter.

Vendors that are purposely obtuse? Fired. I don't have the time or energy to deal with them.

I would rather take the time to deal with a manual conversion from Sherp to ACA then pay money for non-answers.

 

[KennyWest]

<SNIP>

I would rather take the time to deal with a manual conversion from Sherp to ACA then pay money for non-answers.

As an FYI, in case you or others were not aware. ACAExpress provides the ability to import in two different ways currently:

1. Applicants. This import adds them as 'leads' so you can look up and reduces amount of data to be input.

2. Book of Business Import. This provides the ACAExpress "Flashback" renewal process for those enrolled outside of ACAExpress. Required fields for this feature are:
FirstName, LastName, MarketplaceId, PlanId, Subsidy, and Plan amount

We are working on a 3rd to add to the list.
Since the platform you used, like most out there, does not provide the PlanID in their exports, we are working on an import function specifically for those enrolled through them. This process will pull the PlanID based on the provided information in the CSV uploaded.

Stay tuned for more info!

[EDIT]
Wanted to clarify that the "Chris" the original poster referred to was not the "Chris " which works at ACAExpress. A user sent a screenshot to me this week which I remembered had the name the original poster referred to.

BTW.. ACAExpress.com employees are 100% U.S. based and does not contract out any work outside the U.S. either, engineering, support or otherwise..

 

[goillini52]

As an FYI, in case you or others were not aware. ACAExpress provides the ability to import in two different ways currently:

1. Applicants. This import adds them as 'leads' so you can look up and reduces amount of data to be input.

2. Book of Business Import. This provides the ACAExpress "Flashback" renewal process for those enrolled outside of ACAExpress. Required fields for this feature are:
FirstName, LastName, MarketplaceId, PlanId, Subsidy, and Plan amount

We are working on a 3rd to add to the list.
Since the platform you used, like most out there, does not provide the PlanID in their exports, we are working on an import function specifically for those enrolled through them. This process will pull the PlanID based on the provided information in the CSV uploaded.

Stay tuned for more info!

[EDIT]
Wanted to clarify that the "Chris" the original poster referred to was not the "Chris " which works at ACAExpress. A user sent a screenshot to me this week which I remembered had the name the original poster referred to.

BTW.. ACAExpress.com employees are 100% U.S. based and does not contract out any work outside the U.S. either, engineering, support or otherwise..

USA...USA...USA!!!

 

[DwightD]

Thanks for the ACA Express info, I too am fed up with Health Sherpa, there hardly any ability to get someone to help you with any problems, and they have taken up to a week to get back to me sometimes. Looking forward to another venue option. I've been using HealthSherpa since it started, with a lot of frustration.

 

[kgmom219]

As an FYI, in case you or others were not aware. ACAExpress provides the ability to import in two different ways currently:

1. Applicants. This import adds them as 'leads' so you can look up and reduces amount of data to be input.

2. Book of Business Import. This provides the ACAExpress "Flashback" renewal process for those enrolled outside of ACAExpress. Required fields for this feature are:
FirstName, LastName, MarketplaceId, PlanId, Subsidy, and Plan amount

We are working on a 3rd to add to the list.
Since the platform you used, like most out there, does not provide the PlanID in their exports, we are working on an import function specifically for those enrolled through them. This process will pull the PlanID based on the provided information in the CSV uploaded.

Stay tuned for more info!

[EDIT]
Wanted to clarify that the "Chris" the original poster referred to was not the "Chris " which works at ACAExpress. A user sent a screenshot to me this week which I remembered had the name the original poster referred to.

BTW.. ACAExpress.com employees are 100% U.S. based and does not contract out any work outside the U.S. either, engineering, support or otherwise..

Thanks, Kenny for the info.

And just to clarify, Chris was DEFINTLEY not at ACA. He was at Sherpa. And this was all via email (so that I didn't know he wasn't in the US, perhaps?)

 

[Chris@ACAExpress]

Hi, I'm Chris from ACAExpress.com - hailing from Dallas, Tx. USA.

If you need my assistance feel free to reach out to me. I promise to provide better support than sherpa's chris from the Philippines.

[email protected]

 

[FLM2]

Hi, I'm Chris from ACAExpress.com - hailing from Dallas, Tx. USA.

If you need my assistance feel free to reach out to me. I promise to provide better support than sherpa's chris from the Philippines.

[email protected]

While there is no excuse for Sherpa not responding to KGMom after she has been a loyal customer for several years there is even less excuse for you taking that potshot at your competitor without having a clue about what you are talking about.

Try succeeding by being good at what you do, it's much better than denigrating others.

 

[KennyWest]

While there is no excuse for Sherpa not responding to KGMom after she has been a loyal customer for several years there is even less excuse for you taking that potshot at your competitor without having a clue about what you are talking about.

Try succeeding by being good at what you do, it's much better than denigrating others.

It was a "tongue in cheek" post meant as humor...

 

[KennyWest]

New file import feature, you can now import customer files directly into ACAExpress which you export from healthsherpa.

We provide three import options of which the newest is:

The new one is the "Coming from Sherpa" option.
This provides the same results as "Import Book of Business" so you can leverage our Flashback Renewal tool. The challenge up till now has been the files exported from them did not have all the necessary info ACAExpress needed to match up and fetch the plan details for a customers 2016 plan. This import options takes the data and uses it to match with other data sources and fill in the blanks so you can use the Flashback renewal tool!

Upon upload by you, we review the file to ensure it is in correct format and fix any formatting errors. We are doing this as the export files provided to us and we used to create the mapping were not consistent in the data provided; some had commas in the field data themselves which can throw off mapping while others it appears either the user had edited in some way or the format had changed. There are also some which show as enrollments but have no Marketplace ID, this is the case with some in the file you sent. Once review is done and they are integrated support will inform you. While we ask for 48 hours leeway very few will take this long, most will happen same day, depending of course when submitted.

NOTE!
Before uploading, do not edit the file in such a way which will re-arrange or delete fields. All data is stored in a secure environment and will not be used for any reason other than as directed by you.

 

[saintstigers]

Does ACA Express take into consideration if a state has expanded it's Medicaid program. I input a single person age 30 in LA with income $15K. healthcare.gov says medicaid; ACA says subsidy eligible?