Nevada’s Obamacare exchagne decided Wednesday to give up on rebuilding an exchange platform of its own, opting to stick with HealthCare.gov permanently.
The state exchange board decided on Thursday to make their shift to the federally-operated system, originally supposed to last just one year, permanent, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange has been searching for a new contractor to build a website for next year, but it’s formally ending its search and will stick with HealthCare.gov enrollment technology instead.
Nevada officials created a state-run exchange for the first year of Obamacare, but were faced with endless technological problems and chose in May to move to HealthCare.gov only for the 2015 open enrollment period, while they attempted to rebuild their own website. (RELATED: Nevada Obamacare Exchange Will Move To HealthCare.gov For 2015)
Like several other state exchanges, Nevada’s Obamacare flub was extremely costly. Xerox, the original, now-ousted contractor for the website, received $75 million to build the Obamacare exchange. But the exchange was largely unable to communicate purchased health insurance plans to the insurance companies who were supposed to provide coverage — leaving many Nevadans without insurance even while they were paying their premiums. (RELATED: Report: Nevada Obamacare Exchange Considered Dumping All Customers)
The problems have spawned a class action lawsuit against Xerox and the state exchange. One woman who was party to the lawsuit died after delaying treatment for cancer due to the communication glitches. (RELATED: Woman Suing Obamacare Exchange Dies)
The failed first year of the state-run exchange cost federal taxpayers $91 million in grants. Federal taxpayers are also financing Nevada’s switch to HealthCare.gov, according to the exchange board.
Officials worried that trying again to build a state-run system and failing would boost costs even more. The exchange believes the small number of customers may not be able to support the cost of creating a third system and preferred to leave the cost to federal taxpayers instead.
“If the next open enrollment is not successful, there is no guarantee that implementing a third system within three years would produce a successful result,” an exchange report charged. “If the current federal infrastructure fails, it fails nationally, and federal resources will be utilized to fix the system. No additional state funding would be required to remain on the system.”
Exchange director Bruce Gilbert assured the board that the exchange will continue to be technically state-run, but will continue to use HealthCare.gov.