Despite volume, CEO says MNsure signups going well

More than 4,700 people have used the MNsure website to enroll in public or private health plans since open enrollment for 2015 started Saturday morning.

"We're very pleased that we were able to successfully open our doors on Saturday at 8 a.m. without any major issues and the launch continues to remain successful," MNsure CEO Scott Leitz said. "We have no major issues that we're aware of and things continue to be moving well."

An estimated two-thirds of enrollees signed up for government-sponsored health plans. A little more than 1,500 signed up for private health insurance. That's many more than last year at the same time. In the first two weeks of the 2013 enrollment, 400 had signed up.

Leitz told board members Wednesday the agency's contact center also is working well, unlike last year.

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"On Monday we had one of the top ten highest call volumes ever at MNsure and we were able to answer 98.85 percent of the calls in under five minutes," Leitz said.

Previous high volume waiting times averaged 75 minutes.

One board member suggested staff find a way to shorten the 20 minute process to reset forgotten passwords.

Another suggestion: MNsure should send confirmation emails to new enrollees so they know they've properly completed the process.