Briefing: Fixing the health connector
Massachusetts was ahead of the game last fall when the open enrollment period for public and private health insurance plans began. The state already had its own health insurance exchange in place before the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in 2010.
But the Bay State exchange, re-launched Oct. 1 as the Massachusetts Health Connector, collided with many of the same obstacles other states faced as it implemented technical upgrades to make its system ACA-compliant.
What went wrong with the Massachusetts exchange?
Rather than make the site more user-friendly, the upgrades caused a host of errors that made it difficult for residents to enroll in health plans. This led to an extended open enrollment period, allowing people to sign up through the Connector until April 15. It also prompted the state to part ways with CGI Group, the IT company that had built and operated the Health Connector, and the same company that was blamed for myriad problems that plagued the federal health care exchange, HealthCare.gov.
What's being done to fix it?
The state has opted to start from scratch rather than repair the broken Health Connector, announcing last week that the exchange would be shut down and possibly re-launched in time for open enrollment in the fall.
Meanwhile, residents shopping for health insurance outside the traditional open enrollment period will be shifted to the federal HealthCare.gov site, and Massachusetts is also pursuing new software called hCentive, which is reportedly being used in other states and can be customized for Massachusetts' needs.
Officials have said hCentive is an integrated platform that allows people to enroll in both private and publicly funded plans, such as MassHealth, possibly the more attractive option. But if hCentive is not ready to go live when open enrollment begins Nov. 15, HealthCare.gov will remain the default exchange for Massachusetts residents.
What's the cost?
State officials said this “dual track” approach to keeping an insurance exchange available to Massachusetts residents while a permanent solution is determined is costing about $100 million. That's in addition to the money spent trying to fix the former Health Connector. Gov. Deval Patrick has requested $50 million in federal funding to help defray those costs. n
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