Maryland's state-run health insurance exchange, which rebounded after a rocky start in 2013, has kicked off an agency review covering communications and marketing for the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Weber Shandwick is the incumbent and billed about $4M last year for marketing and digital work.
The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, which weathered technology troubles in 2013 to enroll 264K Marylanders in the last enrollment period, released an RFP on June 5 for the PR work. The exchange notes challenges include smaller budgets than earlier periods, "continued lack of awareness and confusion among the general public," and the difficult-to-reach "Young Invincible" demographic of 18-to-34-year-olds. It wants a more "granular," political-campaign-like approach to targeting specific groups and a creative approach as federal funding for outreach diminishes.
The review comes ahead of the fall enrollment period starting Nov. 1, 2015 and running through January 2016.
Maryland's uninsured rate fell from 12.9% to 7.8% as of late 2014.
Firms must station the lead account teams within 100 miles of Baltimore.
Proposals are due July 1. View the RFP (PDF).
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