Massachusetts Starts Over With Insurance Exchange
The state also will prepare, as a back-up plan in case the new system is not ready in time for this fall's open enrollment period, to join the federal insurance marketplace.
The New York Times: Massachusetts Starts Over On Health Website After Troubles
Massachusetts will stop trying to fix its deeply flawed health insurance website and instead buy new software to help its residents enroll in coverage, officials there said Monday. But the state will also prepare to join the federal insurance marketplace by the next enrollment period, which starts in November, in case the new system is not working in time (Goodnough, 5/5).
Politico: Massachusetts Ditches RomneyCare Health Exchange
RomneyCare’s pioneering health insurance exchange is headed for the scrap heap. Bay State officials are taking steps this week to junk central parts of their dysfunctional health insurance exchange — the model for President Barack Obama’s health care law — and merge with the federal enrollment site HealthCare.gov (Cheney, 5/6).
CBS News: More Bad News For State-Run Obamacare Marketplaces
Less than two weeks after Oregon announced it is giving up on its failed Obamacare marketplace and switching to the federally-run marketplace, Massachusetts officials are saying they may follow suit. The state is scrapping its own Obamacare website because it would be too costly to fix, the Boston Globe reports, and will instead use "off-the-shelf" software called hCentive to enroll people in the new marketplace. Should that back-up plan fail, the state will join the federally-run marketplace facilitated by HealthCare.gov (Condon, 5/5).
Fox News: Massachusetts Overhauls Its ObamaCare Site With New Software
Massachusetts announced a “dual-track” plan Monday to fix its problem-plagued ObamaCare website, buying new software for the state-run site while preparing to move enrollment to the federal site. State officials will buy an off-the-shelf application used on the state-run Colorado and Kentucky sites, instead of trying to fix months of problems. They also are preparing to send customers temporarily to the federal site, HealthCare.gov, if their site is not ready when ObamaCare enrollment resumes in the fall (5/5).
The Boston Globe: Mass. Scrapping Flawed Health Insurance Website
Massachusetts plans to scrap the state’s dysfunctional online health insurance website, after deciding it would be too expensive and time-consuming to fix, and replace it with a system used by several other states to enroll residents in plans. Simultaneously, the state is preparing to temporarily join the federal HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace in case the replacement system is not ready by the fall. The strategy announced Monday will still cost an estimated $100 million, and it creates many uncertainties, especially for insurance companies and consumers. Some customers might eventually need to change insurance plans (Kowalczyk and Levenson, 5/5).
The Associated Press: State Announces Strategy To Overhaul Health Site
Massachusetts officials unveiled a strategy on Monday for overhauling the hobbled health insurance website that has dramatically slowed the state's transition from a first-in-the-nation universal health care program to the requirements of the federal Affordable Care Act. The state planned a "dual-track" approach that calls for purchasing software powering health exchanges in other states while at the same time laying the groundwork for a temporary switchover to the federal government's health care exchange, should that become necessary (Salsberg, 5/5).