The Hawai‘i Health Connector has awarded CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc., a $53 million contract to build and maintain the state’s health insurance exchange.
The IT services provider of Fairfax, Va., will develop, test and maintain eligibility, enrollment, plan management, consumer support, and reporting and data repository business systems and processes over the next three years with options for two additional one-year extensions.
The state decided to develop a state-based exchange instead of a federally facilitated or federal-state partnership model to better take into account Hawaii’s unique culture, according to Coral Andrews, executive director of Hawai’i Health Connector. Hawaii’s health insurance exchange also preserves the Prepaid Health Care Act, an employer mandate for health insurance coverage in effect since 1974.
Among its tasks, CGI will integrate the exchange infrastructure with the Hawaii Department of Human Services eligibility system for determination of eligibility for advance premium tax credits, cost-sharing reductions, and other state health subsidy programs. It will also establish processes for employer enrollment in a small business health options program, or SHOP, exchange and individual enrollment in a qualified health plan.
CGI will also consolidate the data across the Hawaii exchange system and the other systems it will connect to for reporting and decision support and support federal reporting required by the health reform law. The vendor has worked on health insurance exchanges in California, Massachusetts, Colorado and Kentucky.
The Hawaii exchange also named Milici Valenti Ng Pack Inc., of Honolulu, a $1.2 million contract to conduct outreach, education and communications that is easily understood to raise awareness about the Connector among Native Hawaiian communities, small businesses and individuals in urban and rural areas. The contract will run through August 2013, with the option to extend for an additional year.
“Our new partners will not only help us to build a system that will make health insurance more transparent and available in Hawaii, they will also help us to get the word out about the key benefits of the system to Hawaii residents and businesses,” she said in a Dec. 7 announcement.
The Connector has participated in community activities, such as a Honolulu Intertribal Pow-Wow and Annual Children and Youth Day, to spread information about the insurance exchange.
The Hawaiʻi Health Connector submitted its “blueprint” application to HHS two weeks ahead of the original Nov. 16 deadline. The online marketplace will go live Oct. 1, 2013 in order to offer qualified health plans.