The troubled Vermont Health Connect website will be down for weeks to give developers time to address technical and security flaws ahead of the critical open enrollment date of November 15, Gov. Peter Shumlin announced today.
Administration officials said they were being proactive in taking down the site on Monday night and hoping to avoid errors when the next large wave of applicants is expected to hit the site in November, when Vermonters who did not enroll earlier this year will be given the chance to join the program.
“We have more work to do to make sure Vermonters have a well-functioning website by November 15,” Shumlin said at a press conference in Winooski. “I’m focused on that goal like a laser.”
Officials repeatedly insisted that there had been no security breaches or other new problems with the Vermont Health Connect website that prompted the decision. Rather, they said, allowing experts to fix bugs without having to manage a constant stream of visitors is the best way to prepare for November.
But they repeatedly mentioned concerns about potential security breaches.
Lawrence Miller, Shumlin’s senior adviser, said the move was prompted in part by “environmental changes from a threat perspective,” including the recent breach involving information on millions of Home Depot customers.
“We are always emphasizing security. It is looking at the rest of the world and saying, ‘Hey, we have some upgrades to make,'” said Miller. “This is precautionary.”
Administration officials did not provide a timeline for when the site would relaunch, but Miller said it would be “weeks, not days.”
Vermont officials secured permission from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services before taking down the site.
While the website is down, Vermonters will be able to enroll in the program via a call center, where the state’s new vendor, Optum, is prepared to increase staffing if necessary. The roughly 25 percent of existing Vermont Health Connect customers who make payments via the website will soon receive notice of alternate arrangements to make payments while the site is down.
Roughly 30 customers a week are enrolling in Vermont Health Connect using the website, a relatively low number that administration officials insist can be easily handled while the site remains down. Overall, the site handles 750 daily transactions.
The state has struggled to fix systemic problems plaguing Vermont Health Connect, the federally mandated health insurance exchange that debuted last October and has frustrated businesses and private citizens who have struggled to enroll and navigate the buggy website. State officials have repeatedly pushed back deadlines and lowered expectations for enrollment goals.
Harry Chen, who last month was named interim commissioner of the Agency of Human Services, compared previous fixes to the website to “fixing the car while driving it.”
“If we keep doing the same thing we’re doing we’re going to get the same result,” Chen said.
The administration today also announced a command shake-up that suggests the marginalization of Department of Health Access Commissioner Mark Larson, who has been the target of much of the criticism leveled at the program.
At Chen’s recommendation, Shumlin moved oversight for the insurance program from Larson’s department and placed it under the leadership of Miller, the governor’s longtime troubleshooter and former secretary of commerce. Miller will report to Chen.
Larson will continue to run other programs at the Department of Health Access. Larson appeared at the press conference but did not speak.
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Shumlin isn’t riding this donkey into office? I guess when he doesn’t like a program he stands in the middle of the state house and builds a quarter of a billion dollar bonfire and hires a bunch of incompetents to watch it burn.
The Shumlin ” Peter Principle” I know lets hire a social worker with no experience in healthcare administration to run the program. How’s the Shumlin “Peter Principle” working out for you neighbor head over and watch Harry Bliss get “Peter Principled”
Most of us want a simple program run by healthcare professionals that works for everyone. Operative word is WORKS! is well executed by experienced managers and it WORKS. Not managed by the “Peter Principal”
Who can trust this band of incompetent donkeys to run a banana stand? Of course no one ever gets sick in September has a baby get married gets divorced or wants service from state run healthcare service.
This is like a student driver driving on the highway in the middle of rush hour traffic and pulling the emergency brake stopping in the middle of the road and saying I give up.
The way the “Peter Principle” has screwed up Obama s legacy I have to wonder why even a democratic Congress and Senate would support Vermont in a single payer system. “Peter Principle” Shumlin has the temerity to demand a few billion for a an experiment he is not willing to expose to scrutiny.
His “Peter Principle” team have burned through millions of dollars with nothing to show for it. Why would democrats further disgrace our presidents noble goals by funding this donkeys vision. They would all have to put the beer goggles on to even get a squinting floating glimmer of a vision.
Shumlin has proven by his”Peter Principle” failure to hire competence that he isnt the man to deliver on the vision of single payer health care.
It is akin to Ben and Jerry’s making a business selling ice cream out of milk from cows that only feast on wild onions.
Or pouring sour milk on a big bowl cereal full of of fruits nuts and flakes, when you know it will only get thrown out.
He has made it very clear for all to See he cant deliver. Shame on you” Peter Shumlin for making Obama look like a chump.
It would now appear that the state has put the Vermont Health Connect Website into an induced coma and, by all accounts, it is virtually on life support.
Morgan W. Brown
Montpelier