As concern grows over whether U.S. health insurance exchanges will be open by Oct. 1, as planned, Idaho announced it will use federal assets to operate the state’s health insurance exchange website.
The Idaho Health Insurance Exchange was approved in March – too late for the state to operate the website totally on its own.
The tech from the federal government includes offerings to protect social security numbers and other confidential data.
“We are temporarily borrowing some technology to help people fill out the application process," Jody Olson, a spokeswoman for the Idaho exchange, told state news media. "But the part where people are going to find information about the Idaho plans and the Idaho resources – that’s an Idaho exchange.”
The Idaho exchange website will only display content on Idaho health insurance options, not national information. The Idaho Health Insurance Exchange website has answers to frequently asked questions and links to Idaho resources.
image via shutterstock
Most of the states which will offer their own insurance exchanges spent a year or more creating related websites.
“We knew that we would have to use existing technologies and borrow them temporarily while we were able to develop and test each part of the process,” Olson added.
During the fall of 2014, Idaho will provide its own security features on the health insurance exchange website, according to Idaho public radio.
"In the short amount of time since the enabling legislation (HB 248) was passed in March, our staff and the 19 member Exchange board have been working tirelessly to ensure that Idaho's Exchange is operational by the federal deadline. In order to do so, there are instances where we will be using existing technologies temporarily, as we develop and test each part of the Exchange," Amy Dowd, executive director of the Idaho Health Insurance Exchange, said in a statement.
Also, the Exchange will seek proposals later this year from vendors so it can build its own application and enrollment functions on the website, and have them operating next year.
Meanwhile, nationwide there are concerns whether all health insurance exchanges will open by Oct. 1. There is concern about whether security offerings will be in place by that time to ensure confidential consumer information is not hacked by criminals or other parties. The government appears confident the deadline will be met. Critics are unsure.
Edited by
Ryan Sartor
