[T]he Shumlin administration said Wednesday that its long-term plan to fix Vermont Health Connect includes removing a dysfunctional piece of software that the system currently relies upon.
Lawrence Miller, the chief of health care reform, and Richard Boes, the chief information officer, told the House Health Care Committee that the administration wants to remove software called OneGate from the embattled health care exchange.
OneGate is an unstable piece of front-end technology that sits on the foundation of the exchange. The software was created by the Exeter Group, which went out of business in October. Vermont was the company’s only customer and was left trying to pull in former Exeter workers to keep the OneGate technology going.
Boes said that once the OneGate product has been removed from the underlying Vermont Health Connect technology, the system will be more stable. Vermont could also use that technology to build out a related health care technology system called integrated eligibility.
The House Health Care chair, Rep. Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg, asked Boes and Miller to explain the relationship between Vermont Health Connect and integrated eligibility.
Boes compared the idea to building with Legos. Underlying technology on the exchange (made by a company called Oracle) is like a set of Legos, he said, that can be taken apart and rebuilt to make a new system — integrated eligibility.
OneGate is not a Lego but is sitting on top of an otherwise functional set of Legos — the Oracle technology. “And so in order to reuse various different components, some of that OneGate needs to be taken out,” Boes said.
Wednesday’s comments came in the latest in a series of hearings while the Shumlin administration slowly backs away from its original plan to build $771 million worth of health care technology centered on Vermont Health Connect’s OneGate software.
Members of the Shumlin administration wrote in internal memos this month that they wanted to use a no-bid contract to have a company called Speridian Technologies pull the OneGate software off the underlying Vermont Health Connect system.
The Shumlin administration is also seeking bids from vendors that want to take over management of the health exchange starting July 1 for up to two years. Currently, OptumInsight Inc. has the maintenance and operations contract that ends June 30.
Justin Johnson, the secretary of the Agency of Administration, said the request for bids is a measure to ensure a competitive process. However, Miller said Wednesday he did not know if any company besides Optum would be interested in running the exchange.
The House Health Care Committee has recommended that the Joint Fiscal Office facilitate an independent review of Vermont Health Connect since Feb. 26. But House Appropriations cut funding for the review this week to balance the budget.
The Shumlin administration remains opposed to independent review. Miller said Wednesday he and his staff would comply with one if the Legislature passes a law.
