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March 20, 2014 at 12:50 PM
Consultants at First Data say management fragmentation and over-use of temporary workers hurt Oregon’s public health insurance exchange.
Oregon’s state-based Cover Oregon started with enthusiastic support from its state, and $464 million in state and federal funding. It has helped 49,500 residents sign up for “qualified health plan” (QHP) coverage.
But the state has never gotten its Web-based enrollment system or automated application processing systems to work. The exchange has had to process applications by hand.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, D, released a First Data report on the Cover Oregon information technology problems today at a press conference in Salem, Ore.
Kitzhaber said he has taken steps to get past the problems, including accepting the resignation of Dr. Bruce Goldberg, the director of the Oregon Health Authority and acting director of Cover Oregon.
Kitzhaber said he is asking the state’s attorney general to “consider the full range of legal avenues and options” for dealing with Oracle — the primary exchange website development vendor — and other exchange IT vendors.
A representative from Oracle declined to comment on the report.
The First Data consultants say exchange IT work ran into problems because the state let too many entities share responsibility for the project and failed to be clear about who was in charge.
