Employee Benefit News for School, City and County Employers

MD's failed insurance exchange will be reconstructed

Written by Valerie Ortiz | Apr 11, 2014 10:24:07 AM

Maryland is one of the states that faced numerous technical difficulties with its health insurance exchange website's roll out. However, The Washington Post reported Gov. Martin O'Malley recently said the state has decided to completely replace its insurance marketplace by November.

The new site is expected to cost between $40 million to $50 million, in addition to hardware and software licensing costs. Maryland has already invested more than $125.5 million in its exchange, a marketplace spokeswoman said according to the Post. While most of this money came from the federal government, it is yet to be decided if the cost of the new site will be covered by the federal government as well.

According to the news source, auditors of state's health insurance marketplace website recently had troubles reviewing the site as documents regarding contract procurements had be edited or were lacking. Therefore, the audit was limited and is unable to give a good picture of what happened with the site. However, the Post reported Maryland officials could salvage $8 million worth of technology from the existing site to help with the new one.