Boston Globe Turns to Manatt Professional on Massachusetts, Federal Exchange Differences
"Many Differences Between Mass., Federal Rollouts"
The Boston Globe
October 30, 2013 - The Boston Globe turned to Manatt's Greg DeBor, a managing director with Manatt Health Solutions, for insight into how the federal health exchange rollout differed from Massachusetts's in 2006.
The Boston Globe reports that the Massachusetts program got off to a relatively smooth start compared with the launch of the much larger federal website, the online marketplace where consumers in more than 30 states can shop for insurance plans. Not only does the federal exchange interact with many more insurers, but it is also far more prescriptive than the state law.
DeBor, who was formerly a partner with the principal contractor for the Massachusetts Health Connector, told The Boston Globe that from the start, the goal of the state's website was to provide people with a good shopping experience.
"It's a bad shopping experience, I would say, akin to turning over your life story before you can walk through the door at Walmart," DeBor said of the federal exchange.
Under the 2006 state law, Medicaid remained a separate program, with its own application process. And the process for verifying whether a person qualified for subsidized insurance through the Connector, based on income, was farmed out to Medicaid. Much of the communications between the Connector and insurers was handled offline by a subcontractor, DeBor said.
Read the article here.