As of Dec. 30, only 500 people were able to enroll in their permanent insurance plans through the Massachusetts Health Connector due to problems with the website. The governor and attorney general are considering legal action against their information technology contractor.
BOSTON - Gov. Deval Patrick and Attorney General Martha Coakley left the door open on Wednesday for potential litigation against the company that developed the Massachusetts Health Connector website.
"It's something I've asked the team to look at," Patrick said, when asked by a reporter about possible litigation. "I'm very concerned about the performance of CGI and whether we got what we paid for, and I think most of us feel we have not."
The Massachusetts Health Connector has blamed its information technology vendor, CGI, for problems with its new website, which it created in order to comply with the Affordable Care Act. The automated determination process, through which the connector determines what subsidy someone is eligible for and what insurance program they should be in, has not worked, forcing the connector to process applications by mail. There have been problems in account creation log-in, slow performance, time-outs and random and sporadic error messages, according to the Health Connector.
As of Dec. 30, only 500 people had been able to enroll in their permanent insurance plans through the Health Connector, the state's version of the health insurance exchange.
Linda Odorisio, a spokeswoman for CGI, said in an email that CGI is continuing to work with Massachusetts officials to deliver improvements and expand the functionality of the Massachusetts Health Connector.
"The health-care marketplace in Massachusetts is successfully processing applications from citizens to enroll in insurance," Odorisio said. "CGI has led or played a major role on the most successful state insurance marketplaces in the country, including Colorado, Kentucky and California. We are working closely with Massachusetts leaders to avoid any formal disputes by ensuring that contract requirements for all parties are met."
Coakley, who is a Democratic candidate for governor, was asked whether the state would consider suing CGI during an interview on Boston Herald Radio on Wednesday. She said, "We've brought suits against businesses, corporations and the federal government, and if there's an ability or a need to do that, we certainly will."
She said Massachusetts agencies are working to fix the website. "We're concerned that we get it right as quickly as possible," Coakley said. "I know that process is under way, and we can and will stay involved in that."
Patrick said the state has not paid the entire cost of its contract with CGI, since it is a pay-as-you-go contract. But, Patrick said, "I'm concerned about the value of what we got. And the number of workarounds, while they’ve been a source of my own pride in the creativity of the folks over there at the connector, this isn’t what we paid for."
Patrick said state lawyers are considering legal action. "It's good to know that the attorney general, if we have to go that route, would support that.".
The board of the Massachusetts Health Connector will meet Thursday. Jason Lefferts, a spokesman for the connector, said the accountability of CGI will be discussed as part of an update on the open enrollment period.
The Republican/MassLive.com previously reported that as of Dec. 30, only 497 people were enrolled in permanent subsidized health insurance plans. The state was providing temporary insurance for another 22,000 new enrollees while it worked to process their applications. The state had extended coverage for existing customers of its Commonwealth Care plans through March 31.
Lefferts said that as of Jan. 7, 4,676 people enrolled in both subsidized and unsubsidized plans through the Health Connector, up from 3,759 as of Dec. 30. He did not have a breakdown of how many of those were subsidized. Individuals whose plans are not subsidized have until Friday to pay their premiums, so that number is likely to tick up.
"We're doing everything we can right down to old-fashioned processing by hand to make sure that folks don’t have a gap in their insurance on account of a website that isn't working as well as it should," Patrick said. "And we're going to continue to do that. The most important thing is making sure that people are insured, and we are going to meet that obligation."