Vermont hires consultant to review health exchange

Vermont has selected Maine-based consulting firm BerryDunn to perform a review of Vermont Health Connect, the state’s health information exchange, which despite high enrollment numbers has not worked as efficiently as state leaders hoped.

This will be the second time BerryDunn reviews the health information exchange. The company originally reviewed the project as part of a state law requiring a third party to assess all state information technology projects that cost more than $500,000.

The second review comes after issues surrounding the site’s functionality and general navigation. State officials hope the review will help them analyze what went wrong, and how they can improve the execution of future IT projects.

In an email to the Manchester Journal, Richard Boes, Vermont’s chief information officer, said the after-the-fact review is unique.

“The process we are going through now is to review lessons learned through an independent contractor and we are terming it ‘lessons learned/implementation assessment’ to keep it separate from the independent review process already completed,” Boes wrote in his email.

BerryDunn was selected by being one of the state’s preferred vendors.

A request for proposal to review the exchange was put out in early January, going out to four companies on the state’s preferred-vendor list.

The state’s request asked the prospective reviewers to help Vermont evaluate its approach, staffing and management structure, and what lessons exist to reduce risk and improve implementation of future projects.

The authors of the RFP said the contract would be awarded based on proposal quality, cost, prior experience and the timeline for the review.