Massachusetts to fire health insurance exchange contractor

Massachusetts plans to sever ties with CGI, the contractor behind its struggling health insurance exchange, the Boston Globe reports.

The paper quotes Sarah Iselin, whom Gov. Deval Patrick recently hired to oversee repairs to the site, which has struggled to work properly since its launch this past October, in announcing the split.

Based in Northern Virginia, CGI was the primary contractor behind the federal government’s healthcare.gov, which struggled with the initial wave of enrollment, but has since rebounded following public failures early.

Massachusetts has resorted to using paper applications to sign up its residents for the Affordable Care Act as the website has not been able to handle the enrollment process.

The federal government gave the state an extension of the enrollment deadline, pushing it back from the end of March to the end of June, but Iselin said the state plans to ask for another extension because it doesn’t expect to be ready by then.

The hope is to have a functioning website for next fall’s enrollment period for coverage beginning in 2015.

Massachusetts has paid $15 million of a $69 million contract with CGI. Connector officials have not said how much taxpayers will have to pay to fix problems with the health exchange.

Massachusetts is not alone when it comes to issues surrounding its health insurance exchange. Last month, Maryland fired the contractor behind its site. Other states, such as Oregon and Vermont, have had very public struggles as well.