Kentucky and Nevada are both betting big on new websites to help with the complicated processes of administering healthcare for their residents.
In Kentucky, state officials have contracted with Deloitte to help them build a mobile-friendly website that will track whether certain Medicaid beneficiaries are meeting the state’s new work requirements, the Associated Press reported.
In January, officials began to test the new website with people who get food stamps, which already has similar work requirements. Once the new site is up and running for Medicaid beneficiaries, the idea will be to have them use their smartphones to log their hours of work or “community engagement” to ensure they remain eligible for benefits.
However, some advocates are worried that the new system will be burdensome and confusing for Medicaid recipients—especially given its reliance on smartphones, since some people may not have unlimited data.
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The article also pointed out that Deloitte was previously in charge of a website called “Benefind,” which was meant to consolidate all of Kentucky’s assistance programs and ended up accidentally sending people messages that their benefits had been canceled.
“We all know that Benefind was a total train wreck,” Democratic state Rep. Jim Wayne said, according to the AP.
In Nevada, meanwhile, a key committee in the state’s legislature approved $1 million in funding for the state to take its first step toward ditching Healthcare.gov and building its own individual insurance exchange, according to the Nevada Appeal.
The state previously tried to set up its own exchange using Xerox as a contractor, but had to turn to the federal platform when that effort failed. It’s now reviving the effort because the federal government is raising the fees for using its front-end platform, which is becoming too costly for the state and could force it to raise premiums.
The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange’s request for proposal will target vendors that have built exchange systems that have been running successfully for a year or more, the article noted.