State health exchanges leave frustrated callers on hold for hours As the March 31 enrollment deadline approaches to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act — that we also know as ObamaCare — people from all over the United States have come forward to voice their complaints about the overall process, claiming that it's inefficient and frustrating. First there were the technical issues that plagued the Obamacare website when it first went live in October 2013. Now, Indiana-based news outlet "The Republic" reports that contacting health exchanges via telephone for customer service support has been time-consuming, to say the least. "I once waited three hours and 40 minutes to get through to a manager who cycled the problem back through to his subordinate," said Nevada resident Claudia Lamb. "The subordinate's solution was to do another application." Jacki Manley, a stay-at-home mom from Maryland, echoed these sentiments, explaining that she has contacted the state's health exchange more than a dozen times in the past few months and still hasn't received adequate answers to her questions. The news outlet reveals that in California, "the exchange's goal was to answer 80 percent of the calls within 30 seconds," though officials admit that this standard hasn't been met. They say they're working diligently to resolve this issue in advance of the deadline. "We've heard [people's] concerns," Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said. "We've stepped up to say we're going to make it right." This serves as a reminder of how organizations of all sizes can benefit from outsourcing customer service. Domestic inbound call centers, often with at home agents to allow for flex staffing, have what it takes to handle large volumes of incoming calls and ensure that critical customer service needs of organizations are being met and exceeded.