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How Minnesota's Health Exchange Became an IT Disaster

posted by girlwhowaspluggedout on Friday March 14 2014, @01:30AM   
from the lowest-bidders-all-the-way-down dept.

skullz writes:

"I've watched the Affordable Care Act's federal and state website roll-outs with trepidation as one botched IT project crashes and burns after another. As more information is coming out about Minnesota's health insurance exchange, lo and behold, poor communication, lack of fundamentals, and bureaucracy seem to be contributing factors.

From NPR's How A Series Of Mistakes Hobbled Minnesota's Health Exchange we learn that the users were the first to actually test the website:

What Minnesotans did not know is they were testing the site. There wasn't time for consumer testing before the site went live. Michael Krigsman, a consultant who specializes in diagnosing and preventing IT project failures, says testing is key. 'That is so screwed up. You can quote me on that,' he says. 'This is one of these things that's so foundational. It's like why do we need to breathe the air?"

Propublica has another article which covers the health insurance exchanges of Minnesota, Massachusetts, Oregon and Maryland - blue states that support the Affordable Care Act.

Having been on projects with shifting scope, compressed timeframes, and arbitrary milestones I feel for the developers who worked on these websites and am a little depressed that we are still doing this in 2014. When will the managers learn? Or at least listen?"

• Thought I'd share this (Score: 4, Insightful) by randmcnatt on Friday March 14 2014, @03:06AM

  by randmcnatt (671) on Friday March 14 2014, @03:06AM (#16162)

  This arrived today.
  
  Apparently they never noticed that it was my wife who was trying to get insurance (because I get SSDI and veteran benefits). There's two links in the email, and neither one works, of course.

  You may have received a notice stating that there was an application inconsistency when you tried to apply. An application inconsistency means the information you provided on your application doesn't match information we use to check what you are eligible for.
  
  Your notice also may have asked you to send in proof of certain information from your application, like your income.
  
  We want you to know that even if your eligibility determination notice asks you to provide additional information or documents to the Marketplace, you should still continue to choose and enroll in a health plan. The Marketplace will work with you to provide additional information or documents and resolve the inconsistency, but we don’t want paperwork to delay you from getting covered.
  
  If you've already resolved your application inconsistency, then you are another step closer to getting quality, affordable health coverage.
  
  Click here to return to your account and complete your enrollment online.

  --
  The Wright brothers were not the first to fly: they were the first to land.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4