Report Outlines IT Challenges And Guidelines For State HIXs

Along with the financial challenges of creating health insurance exchanges, and some of the political resistence to them, state governments have an enormous amount of IT work to do — perhaps chief among all the tasks is replacing arcane software with IT that can link HIX, Medicaid and CHIP systems, and function like Amazon.com.

With some guidance on those issues, researchers from the National Academy of Social Insurance and the University of Massachusetts Medical School have released a new report based on the experiences of “early innovator” states. Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon have all jumped at federal funding opportunities and started designing exchanges and their digital infrastructure.

Michael Tutty, co-author and director of the University of Massachusetts Medical School office of health policy and technology, said the experience of those states “can bend the learning curve for policymakers and promote collaboration among those looking to prepare for and advance health care reform in their states.”