State sources say negotiations for a second large IT project with CGI have been suspended.
The long-awaited revamp of the Agency of Human Services’ legacy ACCESS program has been put on hold, and the state’s request for proposal — which was originally issued a year ago — remains open.
CGI, the firm that is developing the state’s health care exchange, Vermont Health Connect, is one of the bidders on the Integrated Eligibility “IE” Solution Project.
The state and CGI were about to ink the deal on the new contract this month, sources say, when negotiations fell through.
State officials refused to comment on the status of negotiations with CGI over the IE Solutions project or the back and forth over penalties imposed on the company for problems associated with Vermont Health Connect.
Robin Lunge, director of health care reform, and Mark Larson, commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access, said the negotiations are confidential.
“I don’t believe we’ve made any comment about who the bidders on our procurements are,” Larson said. “It’s a very standard procurement procedure for us as a state. There is an RFP out there and it’s ongoing.”
The IE Solution Project is part of a megalithic state IT system that includes the health care exchange and ACCESS, which is the computer system used by most programs and departments in the Agency of Human Services.
A request for proposal issued on Nov. 15, 2012, identifies the IE Solution Project as the replacement for ACCESS, the state’s legacy IBM mainframe operating system created in the early 1980s. The IE Solution would allow the state to retire its legacy ACCESS system which provides tracking and eligibility systems for an array of Agency of Human Services programs including Temporary Aid for Needy Families, emergency assistance, Reach Up, 3SquaresVT, disability and mental health programs.
“It is an important upgrade for existing and future health and human services programs and that would include green mountain care,” Larson said.
Estimates for the replacement of the ACCESS project have run as high as $100 million. Most of the cost would be paid for by the federal government.
It is not clear now how much the project would cost as no bids have yet been accepted (the deadline was March 1, 2013) and state officials are unwilling to cite a cost range for fear of prejudicing potential bidders.
CGI’s $84 million Vermont Health Connect project has been plagued by delays, glitches and core functionality problems. Complicating matters further is the statutory mandate for 100,000 Vermonters to purchase insurance. Vermont is the only state to require residents to buy coverage through the exchange. CGI did not respond to questions about the AHS project.
Gov. Peter Shumlin and other state officials have been pestering CGI over the past four months as issues have surfaced, but problems continued. The site didn’t work on the Oct. 1 launch and well into the month of October; employees couldn’t accept employers health care contributions through the site in November; and even now it’s not possible to pay for insurance premiums online through the Vermont Health Connect website. Last month, the Shumlin administration gave companies and individuals the option to continue allowed companies to by pass the website and purchase health care insurance plans directly through BlueCross Blue Shield and MVP Health Care.
At this point 30,000 employees have bypassed the website and enrolled in VHC plans directly through insurance carriers. About 15,000 individuals have enrolled through the website. The administration has not provided a total number.
Just before Thanksgiving, the state took its badgering of CGI to a new level and issued a notice that the state is docking the company for failure to meet four “critical milestones.” Liquidated damages for the missed deadlines totaled $26.5 million, according to a letter from Mark Larson, commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access, but the maximum penalty the state can impose is $5.1 million.
Shumlin told reporters Wednesday that he had not spoken to CGI officials in the past week.
