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Thousands of Nevadans could see big healthcare bills next month

Roughly 10,000 Nevadans have signed up for health plans through the state insurance exchange so far this enrollment period for coverage starting January 1st. But Reno Public Radio's Michelle Bliss reports that tens of thousands of others, who signed up in the past, could end up having their federal subsidies delayed for not re-enrolling this time around.

Nearly 37,000 people signed up for an insurance plan through the state's initial system, which was originally administered by Xerox. It was riddled with so many technical issues, including billing errors, that a state board eventually fired Xerox and Nevada began using the federal insurance platform at healthcare.gov instead of its own.

Bruce Gilbert is executive director for the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange. He says, unfortunately, data from the state's first system could not be transferred to the current one.

"The most important thing is if you're going to port out data," Gilbert explains, "it has to be credible data. It has to be error-free data. And we were not comfortable with the idea, and we simply did not have a lot of confidence that that would be the case."

That means everyone who previously enrolled must do so again, as though for the first time. And in order to qualify for coverage that begins the first of next year, you have to sign up by Monday.

"If you don't, you still have the opportunity to sign up, but it can and will affect the amount of the subsidy that you receive," according to Gilbert. "You might get a big bill in January and say, 'Oh my goodness, I probably should have done something.' And it would get people, I think, more motivated to go ahead and actively re-enroll."

Xerox was awarded a $76 million contract to set up the state exchange. The company did receive a paycheck, but Gilbert says it was nothing close to the original amount, most of which will be returned to the federal government.

Michelle Billman is a former news director at KUNR Public Radio.