California was awarded a $196 million federal grant to help establish the state’s Health Benefit Exchange, including design of the California Healthcare Eligibility, Enrollment and Retention System (CalHEERS), the Exchange announced yesterday.
“These funds will be used to develop the backbone of a new health care system – one that promises coverage to millions of Californians who, for a variety of reasons including cost, currently go without it," said Diana Dooley, chair of the Exchange and secretary of the Health and Human Services agency in a statement.
The CalHEERS project includes the development of a new Web portal, set to go live with pre-enrollments on October 1, 2013. Individuals, families and small businesses will have access to the portal to determine available subsidies, compare insurance plans and enroll in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. Project organizers estimate that 4.4 million California residents will benefit from subsidies or health insurance coverage as a result of the CalHEERS portal.
In accordance with federal health care reform, the Health Benefit Exchange will create a new insurance marketplace in which individuals and small businesses will be able to purchase competitively priced health plans using federal tax subsidies and credits beginning in 2014.
Accenture won the contract in May to develop and operate CalHEERS.
