Maryland's troubled insurance exchange is ending its contract with the lead IT developer and might be trying to recoup some of the millions that've been paid out, while calling in the nation's go-to HIX fix-it firm.
At the recommendation of the state secretary of information technology, Isabel FitzGeralnd, the board overseeing Maryland Health Connection voted to terminate its contract with Noridian Health Solutions and transition operations to UnitedHealth Group subsidiary QSSI, which was hired in December to help salvage the exchange website.
"These steps will support a smooth transition" and "support the exchange's goal of enrolling as many Marylanders as possible in quality, affordable health coverage by the close of open enrollment on March 31," said exchange board chairman and state health secretary, Joshua Sharfstein, MD.
While state officials negotiate a termination agreement with Noridian, a division of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, QSSI, a part of United's Optum technology company, is bringing in additional staff to work with existing contractors in an attempt to "improve and maintain the current technology underlying Maryland Health Connection in the short term."
Led by IT secretary FitzGerald, the exchange's leaders and state officials are leading a review of technology options after March 31. Those could include partnering with the federal marketplace, finding a new contractor, taking up offers from eHealth Insurance and others to serve as a "web-based broker," or licensing exchange technology from Connecticut's exchange, Access Health CT, which has been successful enough to launch a consulting venture to help other states.
Maryland is also "preserving all rights to seek damages against Noridian and its subcontractors for problems with the IT system," Sharfstein said in a media release, and legislators are seeking state audit to find out exactly what went wrong.
Whatever did go wrong, Maryland Health Connection has not been able to properly function since it went live last October, leaving thousands of consumers struggling to enroll online and over-the-phone. As of late January, "multiple defects" were "outstanding," as exchange staff told the board.
Noridian, a Medicare administrative contractor since the late 1960s, was hired by Maryland in 2012 on a contract worth $193 million over five years, and as of February 2014 it had collected $68 million.
Noridian ended up subcontracting the bulk of the exchange technology work to the Florida-based software company EngagePoint, which subsequently hired more subcontractors to take on the high workload.
After the disastrous website rollout, Noridian fired EngagePoint and the two have been sparring in federal court in Baltimore ever since.
Noridian's CEO Tom McGraw, who came to the company in April 2013 after a working in executive positions at Amerigroup, United's Optum and Maximus, said in a statement that the company will continue to "offer management and technical support" through the end of open enrollment.
Since October, McGraw added, "Noridian has complied with its contractual obligations under tremendous pressure and constant changes by the state," implementing 163 "infrastructure fixes and performance tuning activities" and 445 "enhancements and bug fixes."
Noridian is the second significant contract change Maryland Health Connection's board has made since October. In December, the exchange's first executive director, Rebecca Pearce, resigned after controversy erupted from her Thanksgiving vacation to Cayman Islands, amid continuing website glitches.
As of mid-February, a bit more than 33,000 Marylanders had enrolled in private plans through the exchange -- making the goal of 226,000 for 2014 enrollment unlikely to be met -- and about 60,000 had enrolled in Medicaid. The Maryland legislature also approved an emergency extension of the state's high-risk pool to cover those unable to enroll in the exchange.