Dive Brief:
- A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Nevada, Xerox and the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange over problems with the state's online health insurance marketplace.
- The suit was filed on behalf of consumer Larry Basich, who still doesn't have insurance despite paying the premium on his health insurance exchange plan in November.
- The lawsuit is claiming gross negligence and failure to do due diligence to determine whether Xerox was capable of building the exchange. Xerox has also faced criticism in the past, when Medicaid providers in Alaska blamed flawed claims processing from Xerox for putting them in financial danger as they waited months for payments.
Dive Insight:
At first blush, one might think that the biggest problems the exchanges would have had would be getting people's attention and keeping it through the sign-up process. However, experience has shown that the biggest problem public officials face in enrolling people for ACA coverage seems to be the technology behind the exchanges. Not only do we have the spectacular failure of HealthCare.gov, but state exchanges as well. These problems can be fixed, but it seems like the usual suspects in government work may not have been the right choices for implementing the systems.