He ealth h car re la aw pr rovi iding g wo ork for f lo ocal l com mpan nies s

By Marjori ie Censer, E-ma ail the writer

Local con ntractors ar re winning new n work bu uilding heal lth insuranc ce exchange es and linkin ng insurers into those networks n as s states mov ve forward o on the Obam ma administ trations Pat tient Protectio on and Affor rdable Care e Act. Reston-b based Maxim mus, for ins stance, this summer s sta arted design ning and dev veloping Minneso otas health insurance i exchange. e Un nder the $4 41 million, n nearly two-y year contrac ct, the comp pany is to cr reate the tec chnology for r the exchan nge, meant t to give Minn nesota resid dents a way to shop for an nd enroll in health h insur rance plans .

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Accentur re, which ha as multiple local l offices s, won a $35 59 million co ontract to im mplement Californi ias health in nsurance ex xchange. Ab bout half of t the funding g will cover i initial developm ment and im mplementati ion, and the e other half w will go to op perating cos sts over abo out three and a half year rs after imp plementation n. While so ome states are a moving slowly, s and in some cas ses opting to o use a feder ral exchang ge initially, Bruce Casw well, preside ent and gene eral manage er of health services at Maximus, s said his comp pany is expe ecting gradu ual increases s in new opp portunities. .

In the near-term, the addressable market at a state level is limited, he said. But that market will grow over time. A Reston-based company called hCentive, founded in 2009, is finding that building health insurance exchanges themselves is just the beginning. Once hCentive develops and builds those, it then is going to insurance companies and helping them build the software they need to be able to connect with those exchanges. With hundreds of insurance companies and a different health insurance exchange program in each state, the opportunities are nearly endless, said Sanjay Singh, hCentives chief executive and co-founder. The company has already won work building health insurance exchanges for Colorado, New York and Massachusetts, he said. Exchanges are gaining speed and attention. In the District, for instance, the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority last week accepted a recommendation that would affect small businesses with 50 or fewer employees, requiring that they buy their health insurance plans through the citys exchange. States are taking different approaches to their health insurance exchanges some are purchasing technology and services as a package while others are buying each piece separately and are moving at different paces, creating a whole range of opportunities, said Amanda White, an analyst at Deltek, which researches the government contracting market. There are also contracts for marketing, consumer outreach, manning call centers and quality assurance. The breadth of opportunities is so wide that its not just system integrators pursuing this work, White said. It just reaches a very wide group of vendors. While the deadline for states to get exchanges up and running is 2014, White said these consumer-focused marketing efforts should get off the ground in 2013 and 2014.