‘Dual’ Talk From Mass. Health Connector Execs

May 23--Health Connector officials appear to be speaking out of both sides of their mouths, according to an internal document obtained by the Herald -- publicly telling state taxpayers their top priority is to fix their glitch-ridden website, while privately assuring federal officials their main goal is to hook up Bay Staters to the national Obamacare portal.

Health Connector officials are seeking $120 million in federal funds to pay two IT firms, Optum and hCentive, to fix the state website while also looking for a way to transition to the Obamacare portal, HealthCare .gov.

Connector officials have said publicly that repairing the state website is job one. But an internal document presented to the fed-eral Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this week seems to tell a different story.

The document states that even "if (the federal) track" -- the transition to HealthCare.gov -- "is determined to be behind schedule and cannot be rectified," the Connector will "suspend hCentive track" and "focus on (the federal track) only."

That private strategy is likely to play well with the feds, who are pressuring failing states to scrap their botched websites and join HealthCare.gov. Meanwhile, publicly pushing the hCentive plan as top priority appears to be designed to assure taxpayers the state site will be fixed, while also appeasing health care advocates who want to keep the customized complexities of the Bay State system.

But that apparent doubletalk is raising eyebrows among professionals in the health care industry.

"You can't succeed if you have two number-one priorities, no matter how much money you're going to spend," said a source with know-ledge of the document. "The Connector is telling the feds what they want to hear, which is going federal is the top priority, and telling people in Massachusetts that doing a state-based exchange in the next few months is the top priority. Which one is it?"

Health care expert Joshua Archambault of the Pioneer Institute said the internal document indicates to him that the odds are slim the state will ever fix the Connector site.

"It is a big deal from the perspective that they realize how unlikely it is that hCentive will be able to accomplish the goal of setting up a bare-bones website by the end of this year," Archambault said. "In other words, they are signing up taxpayers to spend over $100 million this year with little chance of having a workable state-based website."

A Health Connector official, who confirmed the document's authenticity, said it's part of "an ongoing conversation" with the feds and that no decisions have been made yet.

"We know they are going to want to see equal amounts of progress on both tracks, if not more progress on the (federal) side of things, because they have a higher confidence in the (federal system), and rightfully so, because it's working," the official said.

The official -- who denied the Connector is engaging in doubletalk -- added that if all else fails, hCentive will still rebuild the state system for the 2016 open enrollment, even if it's pulled off-line next year.

In a statement, Connector spokesman Jason Lefferts said: "The dual-track plan best positions Massachusetts to maintain the policies and programs that have expanded access to quality, affordable health insurance to 97 percent of our residents. It also ensures that no matter what, we will have a functioning website in time for Fall open enrollment that helps people gain coverage."

HCentive officials have not returned repeated calls and emails from the Herald over the past two weeks, including yesterday.

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