BISMARCK, N.D. Health care providers told lawmakers Tuesday that new signups for health insurance are running below projections in the weeks following the open enrollment period under federal health care legislation.

Officials with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota and Sanford Health Plan took part in a panel discussion on implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the state Capitol. The discussion was part of a meeting of the interim Health Care Reform Review Committee.

Luther Stueland, director of health policy impact and exchanges for Blue Cross, provided updated enrollment figures through Nov. 4 to the committee.

Stueland said the company had received 118 contracts for insurance since the open enrollment period through the Affordable Care Act began Oct. 1. Of those, 24 were through the federally-run state health insurance exchange. The rest were through other means, he said.

"While these numbers are smaller than we had projected, we expect greater enrollment as Jan. 1 approaches and throughout the open enrollment period which ends March 31, 2014," Stueland said.

Stueland pointed to the highly publicized glitches in the federal health care insurance website leading to enrollment problems across the country. He said it appears many people may be waiting for the issues to be corrected.

Stueland said notices are being sent out to approximately 31,600 individual and small-group market customers whose non-grandfathered plans are to be discontinued.

"This accounts for roughly 8 percent of the 400,000 North Dakotans we serve," Stueland said.

Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, asked Stueland about the effects of possibly moving back the date of the individual mandate for having health insurance. Recently, there has been debate on the federal level over moving back the mandate by one year, which would require people to have insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014.

Kasper asked Stueland if Blue Cross would continue providing the current policies to the 31,600 customers set to receive notices. Stueland replied that Blue Cross would comply with federal law in the event of that occurring.

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Health care enrollments expected to increase