Health Connector Officials Concerned About Long Waits

The Massachusetts Health Connector is examining why its call center became so overwhelmed that more than half the callers during peak times hung up in frustration after being left on hold for too long.

The call center's performance was among the major areas targeted for improvement by connector officials Thursday at the monthly meeting of the agency's governing board.

The Boston Globe reports that despite additional staff, with sometimes more than 700 people on the job, the state health insurance marketplace's call centers had long wait times and high hang-up rates.

From Nov. 15 until Tuesday, the average wait time was 11.4 minutes and one in five callers hung up. On peak days, however, waits averaged 50 minutes and 60 percent of callers hung up.