1. He h car la pr iding
ealth re aw rovi
g
wo for lo l com nies
ork f
ocal mpan s
By Marjori Censer, E-ma the writer
ie
ail
Local con
ntractors ar winning new work bu
re
n
uilding heal insuranc exchange and linkin
lth
ce
es
ng
insurers into those networks as states mov forward o the Obam administ
n
s
ve
on
ma
tration’s Pat
tient
Protectio and Affor
on
rdable Care Act.
e
Reston-b
based Maxim
mus, for ins
stance, this summer sta
s
arted design
ning and dev
veloping
Minneso
ota’s health insurance exchange. Un
i
e
nder the $4 million, n
41
nearly two-y
year contrac
ct,
the comp
pany is to cr
reate the tec
chnology for the exchan
r
nge, meant t give Minn
to
nesota resid
dents
a way to shop for an enroll in health insur
nd
h
rance plans .
More from Capital Busin
f
ness
Meet Haystax, the maker of Super Bo securi softwar
H
o
owl
ity
re
Steven Overl
ly
The two-ye
ear-old tech firm was formed by private equity to bring big data to law enf
m
b
forcement, defe
ense.
Look Su
upper Club hopes to get a seco
b
o
ond glance from K S
e
St.
Abha Bhattar
rai
After sever attempts to attract new cus
ral
stomers to the space formerly home to Teat Goldoni, ow
y
tro
wners have aga
ain
reinvented the K Street mainstay.
m
Innovat Intervi
tor
iew: Hello
oWallet’s Steve Wen
S
ndel
Steven Overl
ly
The author of ‘Designing for Behavior Change’ talks about applying b
r
C
behavioral scie
ence to busines
ss.
Accentur which ha multiple local offices won a $35 million co
re,
as
l
s,
59
ontract to im
mplement
Californi health in
ia’s
nsurance ex
xchange. Ab
bout half of t funding will cover i
the
g
initial
developm
ment and im
mplementati
ion, and the other half w go to op
e
will
perating cos over abo
sts
out
three and a half year after imp
rs
plementation
n.
While so
ome states are moving slowly, and in some cas opting to use a feder exchang
a
s
ses
o
ral
ge
initially, Bruce Casw
well, preside and gene manage of health services at Maximus, s
ent
eral
er
said
his comp
pany is expe
ecting gradu increases in new opp
ual
s
portunities.
.

2. “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, hCentive’s 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 city’s 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 it’s 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.