TARRYTOWN, NY – The Hudson Health Plan, a nonprofit HMO serving New York’s Hudson River Valley, has added more functionality and relaunched its Web site.

By taking a short questionnaire, visitors can determine their eligibility for public health insurance and schedule an appointment online to meet with a marketing representative. More than 100 appointments have been made since the site went live in early November, said Georganne Chapin, HHP’s president and CEO.

To date, only 50 percent of those eligible for public health insurance are covered because it’s difficult to apply, she said. The portal, Enroll NY, enables easier access to public health options, she said.

The portal is powered by the Facilitated Enrollment Electronic Application (FEEA), an eligibility screening and enrollment tool for three state-subsidized health insurance programs that was developed and launched by HHP in 2000. The Hudson Center for Health Equity and Quality (HCHEQ) now develops, distributes and maintains the tool, along with Enroll NY.

Whereas FEEA streamlined the enrollment process, Enroll NY allows online access, said Chapin. “This opens up a very important means for people who don’t have insurance to apply,” she said.

HHP surveyed people who called their customer care line two years ago and found that more than 50 percent had Internet access, which counters the perception that low-income people are not Internet users, Chapin said.

Thus far, HHP has received the same number of customer-care calls, despite an enrollment spike. HHP has also eliminated application process errors as well as file cabinets, paper, ailing and transit costs. And the average time it takes clients to become qualified for a program has dropped from 45 to 15 days, bringing in premiums much earlier than before.

If the tool aligns with a payer’s services and programs, it can help create member loyalty and limit churn, which would decrease payer costs, said Janice Young, program director for Health Industry Insights.

HCHEQ created a white-label version of Enroll NY that can be licensed by other payers, which do the bulk of enrollment into public health programs, said Ted Herman, the center’s vice president. He said the center is in talks with a payer.

“We’ll see some traction in 2010,” he said.

“We have the technology part for insurance exchange for other states,” Chapin added.

“This is totally transferable. We can build this for others.”