Nevada will save money when it ditches the federally run HealthCare.gov enrollment system in 2019 for a state-based website, state health officials said.
Nevada Health Link received approval Thursday to use $1 million from a reserve account of the Nevada’s Silver State Health Insurance Exchange to make the transition to the new website, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported .
The cost of running the new website is expected to be about half of the $4.1 million the state paid to the federal government to use its enrollment system last year, said Heather Korbulic, the executive director of the exchange.
The new website would also give the state access to real-time demographic information about the enrollees, allowing officials to focus their advertising efforts.
“Technology has come a long way in the last four years, and there are proven and demonstrated systems that are much more architecturally advanced and much less expensive,” Korbulic said. “In order to remain solvent, we were going to have to find some efficiencies.”
Nevada attempted to operate an in-state website in 2014 under a partnership with Xerox. The state switched to the federal system the next year.
“They were brand new endeavors,” Korbulic said of the 2014 failed launch. “But we’re four years down the line now, almost five. Other states have very functional, capable systems for significantly lower costs.”
The state is expected to request proposals in March and plans to have a contract by August.
The website will be developed and tested for a year before it’s implemented in November 2019.