Deloitte bags $18.4 million project to inspect Cover Oregon transfer Technology and Equipment

Deloitte Consulting has been awarded by the Oregon Health Authority $18.4 million contract to oversee Cover Oregon’s transition to the federal health exchange.

Deloitte will act as a system integrator for both the federal switch and the transfer of technology for Medicaid enlistment from Cover Oregon to the Health Authority.

The transition is likely to be done by Nov. 15, the outset of the next open enlistment period. The contract has very stringent oversight and accountability to assure the vendor delivers, says, Tina Edlund, who is overseeing the transition for Gov. John Kitzhaber.

The contract terms involves accountability and oversight activities, with payments made only upon state consent of deliverables. Even more, the state will inhibit an amount to assure the system continues to perform as designated.

It’s a blunt contradiction to Cover Oregon’s IT extensively criticized contract with Oracle Corp., which was formed on time and materials. The state and Oracle are enmeshed in a dispute, which might lead to court, over who was responsible for the website’s issues.

Deloitte’s selection was made by a panel of state and independent reviewers after the state solicited bids from 10 contractors and received three responses.

Following are the four main components of Deloitte’s contract:

Developing a public facing website that will instruct Oregonians to the federal technology to enlist in private plans and to the Heatlth Authority to enlist in Medicaid.

To transfer the present Cover Oregon technology for Medicaid to the Health Authority through an online form that will link up directly to the state’s Medicaid system.

Ensuring fully safe transfer of information among OHA and the federal exchange.

Facilitating the system to screen for other public coverage.

Deloitte had previously carried a gap analysis that defined the requirements for online enlistment.