Work on the state’s health care exchange web site will continue through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to meet a December deadline. Governor Peter Shumlin set Monday, Dec. 2, as the date for the web site’s payment function to go live. Since the exchange launched in October, consumers have been able to browse the web site for insurance packages, but they have not been able to complete the purchase of insurance online.
“We’ll continue that work throughout the holiday weekend," said Commissioner Mark Larson Wednesday on Vermont Edition. Larson oversees the state exchange and says vendors and state employees are still working toward the Monday deadline. "We really are not expecting to take much of any break at all through the holiday.”
Larson said that the testing covers end-to-end consistency for users and credit card security. He says they have a number of test scenarios that need to work consistently before the payment function will be made live on Vermont Health Connect.
He would not predict whether they will meet the Monday deadline, or what contingency plans might go into effect if insurance plans still can’t be purchased online come Monday. "For us it continues to be a daily assessment of where it’s at and what our options are. We understand there’s a lot of pressure on us and on our vendors because early December is approaching us, and we understand that pressure very, very clearly.”
Listen to full audio of the interview:
