The state had been considering joining the federal HealthCare.gov site, but officials have announced that they are keeping their own.
An announcement made by health care reform officials in Massachusetts has now revealed that the state will be keeping its own insurance exchange website as opposed to joining the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace.
A new software system has now been adapted for the state by the hCentive tech firm.
The hCentive software system has already successfully passed its testing and reviews with the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This has allowed officials in the state to become confident that the system will be implemented and ready for use when the enrollment for 2015 begins on November 15, this year. This decision has been a vital step in the state’s health care reform after the updated Massachusetts Health Connector website saw a disastrous launch last October, leading to massive problems and failures.
For a while, it was uncertain as to whether the health care reform in the state would include joining the federal website.
Now a special adviser to the governor, who is responsible for overseeing the project – Maydad Cohen, has said that “Massachusetts will remain a state-based marketplace.” He added that “We’ve successfully demonstrated hCentive’s ability to deliver a smooth consumer experience.”
Importantly, this involves the integration of the unique subsidy program in the state, as well as the reduction of premiums through the federal tax credits. If Massachusetts had joined the federal insurance exchange website, it would not have integrated the state subsidies.
Since much earlier this year, the Massachusetts Health Connector has been working along two lines in order to make certain that it would be prepared for the health care reform decision that would need to be made. One track that it was taking had it working with the Virginia based company, hCentive, for the development of the state’s own software. The other track had it preparing in case it would need to join with the HealthCare.gov insurance exchange if the efforts to develop its own software were unsuccessful. The preparations for joining the federal website have now ceased.
