By Jon Kamp
BOSTON--Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Thursday the state
will retain the company behind its online health-insurance exchange
but is bringing on additional help after an outside review found
problems with the performance of vendor CGI Group Inc.
His decision comes after the federal government in January chose
not to renew CGI's contract overseeing key parts of HealthCare.gov,
the federal health exchange that got off to a rocky start in
October. The site has since seen significant improvement. The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chose Accenture PLC as
the new lead contractor. CGI's federal contract runs through
February.
Vermont, another CGI client, also has had site problems. But
California and Kentucky, two other states that worked with CGI,
have had much smoother experiences.
Mr. Patrick, a Democrat, said a clean break with CGI could be
too disruptive, but that "we're only going to pay them if we get a
workable system." The state thus far has paid about $15 million on
a $68 million contract that runs through September, he said at a
news conference.
The governor said the state also brought on UnitedHealth Group
Inc. unit Optum to help make repairs and clear a backlog of
applicants. Optum will be paid nearly $10 million.
"The website is still too cumbersome, and as more people need to
update their coverage in the coming weeks, there is no assurance
that the current system can handle the new and higher traffic," Mr.
Patrick said. "Bottom line: The website that was supposed to make
it easy has not worked well enough."
A CGI spokeswoman said the company continues to "work
tirelessly" to deliver an effective health-insurance exchange. "We
fully intend to meet our contractual obligations," she said.
Massachusetts already had a comprehensive health-coverage law
that served as a model for the federal law, and about 97% of its
residents have insurance. New federal rules meant the insurance
exchange needed to be upgraded. Many people who were covered under
the state law have to sign up again under the different federal
rules, which expand subsidies and broaden Medicaid coverage. Rolled
out in October, the new version of the exchange had flaws and
stymied applicants.
The Boston Public Health Commission, the largest of several
organizations that received a grant to help sign people up, hasn't
been able to submit one application to the state through the
website, said Beth Baker, director of health access and wellness
services for the city health department. Instead, it has submitted
hundreds of paper applications to the state by fax, she said.
Mr. Patrick handed oversight of the repairs to Sarah Iselin, a
former state official now with local health insurer Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Massachusetts. The report released Thursday from outside
consultant Mitre Corp. highlighted several issues with the site,
including "lack of data integrity" and lost records.
The report said CGI brought "insufficient rigor in project
planning" and had organizational problems.
The review also criticized the state for not having "a
consistent, unified vision for the system nor clear lines of
accountability for implementing the vision" under its old oversight
structure, which divided up responsibilities among three state
organizations. Mr. Patrick, though, cast the blame on CGI, and said
the state didn't have the right structure to manage vendor
problems. Consolidating authority under Ms. Iselin will keep the
vendor on a shorter leash, he said.
Write to Jon Kamp at jon.kamp@wsj.com
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