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Open enrollment documents: who takes them by fax

Open enrollment for 2027 Marketplace coverage opened November 1. A data matching issue or a Special Enrollment Period brings a notice asking for documents by a deadline, and where you send them depends on your state. HealthCare.gov wants an upload. A few state exchanges take a fax. If you were sent to Medicaid instead, your state agency now has your file.

1. The dates

On HealthCare.gov, open enrollment runs November 1 to January 15. December 15 is the last day to enroll or change plans for coverage that starts January 1. After January 15 you can enroll only if you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period.

State exchanges set their own dates. These differ from HealthCare.gov, each linked to the exchange’s own page, which wins.

ExchangeOpen enrollmentEnroll by, for January 1 coverage
Your Health IdahoOctober 15 to December 15Not stated
Access Health CTOctober 23 to January 15December 15
Massachusetts Health ConnectorOctober 23 to January 23Pay by December 23
Vermont Health ConnectNovember 1 to December 28December 15
Virginia's Insurance MarketplaceNovember 1 to January 29Not stated
Covered CaliforniaNovember 1 to January 31December 31
Get Covered New JerseyNovember 1 to January 31December 31
NY State of HealthNovember 1 to January 31December 15
HealthSource RINovember 1 to January 31Not stated
DC Health LinkNovember 1 to January 31Not stated
Explore Health (Oregon)November 1 to January 15December 31
Washington HealthplanfinderNovember 1 to January 15December 31
Nevada Health LinkNovember 1 to January 15December 31

2. What you may be asked to prove

HealthCare.gov lists what a data matching issue can be about: citizenship, immigration status, household income, American Indian or Alaska Native status, other coverage (a job, Medicaid or CHIP, TRICARE, veterans health care, Medicare or the Peace Corps) and your Social Security number. Examples of what it accepts:

  • Income. A 1040 tax return, a W-2 or 1099, a pay stub, a Social Security benefits letter or an unemployment benefits letter.
  • Citizenship. A U.S. passport, a Certificate of Naturalization or a Certificate of Citizenship. Or two documents, such as a U.S. birth certificate plus a driver’s license or government ID. That ID is how identity gets checked here.
  • Immigration status. A Permanent Resident Card (I-551), an Employment Authorization Card (I-766), an Arrival/Departure Record (I-94) or a Notice of Action (I-797).
  • Special Enrollment Period. Proof of the life event, such as a loss of coverage. HealthCare.gov says “After you pick a plan, you have 30 days to send the documents,” and that you must send them “before you can start using your coverage.”

The deadlines, in HealthCare.gov’s words: “90 days to confirm information that doesn’t match our records, like your household income” and “95 days to confirm your citizen and immigration status.” Your letter gives the date.

If the documents do not arrive, “you may lose your health coverage or any cost savings (or both).” State exchanges mostly give 90 days too.

3. HealthCare.gov does not take fax

HealthCare.gov’s verification page says it twice: “We can’t accept documents by email or fax.”

If you live in one of the 29 states that enroll through HealthCare.gov, upload first, which the page calls “the fastest and easiest way.” Mail is second. Send photocopies, not originals, and put the printed bar code page from your eligibility notice on top. The address is on the HealthCare.gov page.

Do not fax your documents to a number you found on a third-party site. There is no fax queue at HealthCare.gov for them to land in.

4. State exchanges that do

Six state exchanges publish a fax line for verification documents on their own site. Each also takes upload and mail.

ExchangeFax for documents?Cover sheet?Deadline
Covered CaliforniaYesYes, its Document Cover PageOn your notice
Massachusetts Health ConnectorYesNot named. Include the request letter and write your name and member ID on each pageUsually 90 days
MNsure (Minnesota)YesYes, and your name and case number on each pageOn your notice
BeWell (New Mexico)YesNot named. Include the notice with its barcode, and your name and address on each pageUp to 90 days
HealthSource RIYesNot statedOn your notice
Washington HealthplanfinderYesNot statedOn your notice

Two more have a fax that is not published for this:

  • NY State of Health prints a fax on its identity and authorized representative forms. For other proof, its documents page says to call its customer service center for faxing instructions.
  • Pennie (Pennsylvania). A fax line is on an older Pennie help article, but not on Pennie’s current documents page, which lists online and mail.

Every other state exchange publishes upload and mail only, or did not say on its documents page: Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Virginia. Follow your notice there.

5. If the Marketplace sent you to Medicaid

HealthCare.gov puts it this way: “If it looks like anyone in your household qualifies for Medicaid or CHIP, we’ll securely send your information to your state agency.” From then on the state Medicaid agency, not the exchange, holds the application and sends the request for documents.

Many state Medicaid agencies take documents by fax. Every published number, with the page it came from, is on Medicaid fax numbers by state and in the directory. Where a state publishes none, because documents go to a county office, that page links the agency instead.

6. Before you fax

  • Use the cover sheet if your exchange asks for one, and put your name, your case or application number and the page count on it.
  • Send copies, never originals.
  • One household per fax.

Then keep proof it went through. Two 2018 NY State of Health appeal decisions show why. In one, a faxed proof of income was marked insufficient “because only the cover page of your fax was visible in your NYSOH account.” The applicant won the appeal because they “provided a fax confirmation letter indicating that five documents were successfully faxed.” In the other, the applicant lost and the decision records that they “did not save the fax confirmation sheet from that fax transmission.”

If you have never sent a fax, send a test fax first. It is a normal $2.99 send to a ProntoFax test line that shows you the pages as they arrived, so you can check that every page is readable. ProntoFax sends faxes and does not receive them, so any reply comes by mail, by phone or through your account.

Keep the receipt email from the real send. It shows the full number you sent to, the time it was delivered and the page count. When a caseworker says a document never arrived, that is what they ask for.

7. If you miss the deadline

  • HealthCare.gov. “Submit documents, even if you miss the deadline. You might re-qualify for savings or Marketplace coverage.” It also says you will get “warning notices and a reminder phone call before eligibility for coverage ends or your savings change.”
  • Washington Healthplanfinder. “If you miss this deadline, your coverage will end.” You would then wait for the next open enrollment unless you qualify for special enrollment.
  • Massachusetts Health Connector. If you lose coverage because you did not send documents in time, “you will need to see if you are eligible to re-enroll in coverage outside of Open Enrollment.”

This note is about getting documents to the right place, not advice about your eligibility. If you are unsure what your notice asks for, call the number on it.

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