Maryland fires contractor that built troubled health insurance exchange
Maryland has fired the contractor that built its expensive online health insurance marketplace, which has so many structural defects that officials say the state might have to abandon all or parts of the system.
The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange voted late Sunday to terminate its $193?million contract with Noridian Healthcare Solutions. Columbia-based Optum/QSSI, which the state hired in December to help repair the flawed exchange, will become the prime contractor, and Noridian will assist with the transition.
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Maryland was one of 14 states that chose to build their own health-insurance marketplaces to implement President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which politicians and residents in the state strongly support. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) boasted that the marketplace and the Web site Marylanders would use to access it would be among the best in the country.
But the site failed within minutes of its Oct. 1 launch, blocking residents who were trying to get health insurance. The system has limped along since then. Ultimately, state officials say, they may have to rely at least partially on the federal health-care Web site or on sites operated by other states
Read the rest at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-to-fire-its-health-care-exchange-contractor/2014/02/24/50df0490-9ce6-11e3-ad71-e03637a299c0_print.html
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