MNsure is sending postcards to about 24,000 households in hopes of luring health insurance shoppers before a Monday enrollment deadline.
Most who bought coverage through the state's health insurance exchange for 2014 are in policies that will automatically renew outside of MNsure next year.
The mailing being sent this week is targeted to those consumers, and tells them cheaper options should be available through the exchange, said Scott Leitz, the MNsure chief executive.
The activity comes as MNsure is working to send electronic files to health insurance companies with information about those signing up through the exchange. The data must be transmitted before subscribers can get invoices for their coverage, as well as health plan ID cards.
Within the past week or so, MNsure sent more than 9,000 enrollment files to insurers, said Joe Campbell, a MNsure spokesman. But some files have missing or duplicate information, said Eileen Smith, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, a trade group for insurers.
"We're working to identify and help MNsure correct the inconsistencies," Smith said. Insurers found similar problems with MNsure enrollment files last year, but Smith said the situation is better this year because "we're working together on it — we're involved in this early stage of helping fix the issues."
Minnesota launched the MNsure marketplace to implement the federal Affordable Care Act, which requires almost all Americans to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty.
For the fiscal year starting July 1, 2015, MNsure expects to cover about one-fourth of its budget by withholding a portion of premiums for private health plans sold through the exchange. The budget expects MNsure to enroll next year in commercial policies about 67,000 people — a figure that is about a third lower than earlier targets, which were reduced from original projections.
