PPACA enrollment deadline changes

The US Dept of Health and Human Services will be giving consumers more time to complete their applications.

HHS and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are not officially changing the March 31st individual period for anyone, but they will make a special enrollment period available to consumers who start the individual QHP (qualified health plan) application process by March 31st and fail to complete the process by that date.

Up until mid-April, a consumer can ask for the application time extension by checking a box on the HealthCare.gov website.
HHS will not be able to verify whether the consumers have really started the application process and will depend on consumers to say whether they have or not, according to the press reports.

Consumers who apply for extensions after mid-April will have to call a call center and provide evidence showing that they qualify for a special enrollment period.
After the end of the ordinary open enrollment period, consumers will still be able to apply for individual QHP coverage if they can show that they have gone through a major life event, such as a marriage or the loss of a job, and they also can justify a request for a "special enrollment period" by showing that they should qualify for a hardship exemption for some other reason.

In Ohio under current law, consumers who do not qualify for a special enrollment period will not be able to start new applications for coverage from April 1 through Nov 15th, when the QHP open enrollment period for 2015 coverage is set to begin.