Washington HIX
Washington Healthplanfinder is the state's official online health insurance exchange (HIX) that connects individuals, families, and small businesses to affordable insurance plans and financial assistance under the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare").
ROLE
Product Designer & Product Manager
CLIENT
Department of Health & Human Services, Washington
TEAM
Engineering
QA
Business Owners
Policy Experts
Compliance
Legal
METHODS
Impact Analysis
Stakeholder Interviews
Wireframes & Prototyping
Usability Testing
Timely, affordable coverage that adapts to life's changes
Washington launched Healthplanfinder (HPF), its Affordable Care Act marketplace, where over half a million residents enrolled in their first year. The platform helps individuals, families, and small businesses compare plans, purchase coverage, and access financial assistance.
Outside annual open enrollment, qualifying life events – like marriage, childbirth, job loss – trigger Special Enrollment Periods. Customers must submit proof of their event to access coverage, but that process was entirely manual.
As product designer and product manager, I led the design and launch of an end-to-end document verification flow – from customer upload through account worker review to enrollment. The result: faster time-to-coverage for customers and fewer manual hours per case for account workers.
PROBLEM
After a major life change (like losing a job or having a baby) customers needed new health coverage fast. However, the only way to verify eligibility was by mail or in person, delaying coverage by up to 90 days.
Account workers manually processed every case, which created a bottleneck that scaled with demand.
Key Features & Downstream Impacts
Document processing status
New document statuses created to reflect processing status (e.g., "document uploaded", "verified")
Support for retroactive coverage
Account workers can override coverage dates based on policy and case-by-case exceptions
SOLUTION
A process that allows customers to upload required documents for timely approval, so that they can enroll in a health plan during a special enrollment period
For customers:
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Upload required documents directly via portal
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Enroll and pay for a plan, pending verification
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Track document status in real time
For account workers:
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Review, flag, and approve documents in a queue
New "conditionally enrolled" status
Customers "conditionally pay and enroll" in a selected plan until documents are verified
Document Tracking Status
We added document and enrollment status tracking to the customer dashboard, and gave account workers the ability to filter and query cases by status for faster reviews.
Before:
After:
TASK FLOWS
Streamlining document verification process
Previously, customers couldn't enroll until their documents were verified. By letting them enroll
upfront, we eliminated the coverage gap.
CONSTRAINTS & EDGE CASES
The conditional enrollment problem
The original flow required document approval before enrollment – creating the same bottleneck we were trying to eliminate. We introduced a "conditional enrollment" status: collect documents, enrollment, and payment upfront, then activate coverage automatically upon verification.
Key edge cases we designed for:
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Multiple qualifying events per household
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Multiple documents per case
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Document rejection and resubmission flows
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When coverage should start
What I learned
Design decisions extend beyond the interface. What appeared to be a simple flow change surfaced policy questions no one had anticipated – like whether coverage should start on submission or verification.
Because this product is rule and policy heavy, it taught me the importance of thorough edge case planning and anticipation of downstream impacts. Without them, design gaps would ship and create operational burden.
OUTCOMES & LEARNINGS
Delivery Outcomes
More customers received timely coverage sooner
Conditional enrollment let customers enroll and pay immediately, with coverage activating automatically upon document verification
Streamlined document processing
Reduced document processing time from months to minutes, reducing the coverage gap for customers experiencing life changes
Zero high-impact defects
Edge case planning and downstream impact analysis delivered a stable system to 500,000+ state residents with no critical issues
For more information on this project, please reach out.
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