Employee Benefit News for School, City and County Employers

MD health exchange needs major overhaul

Written by Valerie Ortiz | Feb 26, 2014 10:55:57 AM

Maryland is one of the states that has experienced the most issues with its insurance marketplace. The situation has gotten so bad the state's health exchange board fired its central IT contractor because of the technical problems, The Associated Press reported. Maryland has options for moving forward with its marketplace, however.

According to The Washington Post, Maryland has options to fix its defective site, such as working with Kentucky, one of the states with the most successful health insurance exchange site. There are other options on the table, however, like receiving technology from Connecticut. No matter what strategy Maryland adopts, the Post reported 60 percent of both Democrats and Republicans in the state want Maryland to fix its system instead of opting for residents to enroll through the federal website, which has seen many problems of its own.

Maryland has even had to revise its enrollment goals. The Baltimore Sun reported the state has cut its enrollment objective in half to make Maryland seem closer to reaching its enrollment goal rather than being far behind. The Sun reported the enrollment slash received opposition in the state as the revised projections seem a quick fix.