California health insurance exchange contract goes to Accenture

California health insurance

California Health Insurance

Following competitive bidding, the state has made its award.

Following a highly competitive bidding process, Accenture has been selected by the state in order to provide its California health insurance exchange.

It is now responsible for the statewide California Healthcare Enrollment, Eligibility, and Retention System (CalHEERS).

This contract has been valued at approximately $359 million, and is broken down into payments of $183 million for the initial creation, development and implementation by October of next year, followed by $176 million for the ongoing development as well as the cost of operation over the three years and six months that follow the initial implementation of the exchange.

The development of the California health insurance marketplace will be led by Accenture.

It will provide residents of the state with the ability to determine whether or not they are eligible for various subsidized benefits, compare the options and prices of various plans, and then enroll in order to obtain coverage.

It is meant to be completed by October 2013 so that it will give Californians enough time to take advantage of the pre-enrollment for California health insurance plans ahead of the January 2014 deadline from the federal government for the implementation of exchanges within each state.

An important part of the implementing of CalHEERS will be the Accenture Public Service Platform (APSP) deployment, as well as the use of the Accenture Health Benefits Exchange (AHBX). These are the software products that were created to allow public agencies to improve their capabilities for IT, and to be able to manage the various citizen services through a cost-effective, integrated, and customer friendly solution.

AHBX has been developed on a foundation of the APSP proven service focused structure, and offers a solution that is aligned with MITA in order to give small businesses and individuals the ability to find out if they are eligible for programs, and then to comparison shop and complete the enrollment processes in the California health insurance plans that they choose.

Accenture will also be subcontracting for some of the software and other elements of the California health insurance project, with companies such as CGI, Getinsured, and Oracle.

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