Software Development
Massachusetts Health Connector
Bringing a modern small business marketplace to the state that started it all.
The challenge
Massachusetts launched the nation’s first health insurance exchange in 2007, the model that shaped the Affordable Care Act, and reached the lowest uninsured rate in the country in the individual market. The Connector set out to extend that success to its small business marketplace, giving brokers, employers, and their members the modern, easy-to-use enrollment experience that private exchanges offered.
The approach
Massachusetts looked at the small business platform IdeaCrew had built for DC, the most successful SHOP program in the country, and the two exchanges launched a partnership to share it, including the platform and the call center. We implemented a fully configured SHOP platform with broker, employer, employee, and admin portals in five months. We converted every small business to the new platform mid-plan-year without resetting carrier accumulators such as deductibles, built new quoting and appointment tools, implemented flexible data integration that minimized the changes carriers had to make, and project-managed both the agile implementation and the diverse stakeholder engagement.
The outcome
The relaunched Massachusetts SHOP became the fastest-growing in the country, with membership rising 90% from 4,500 to over 8,000 members in two years. In a customer survey, 88% of Massachusetts employers said they would recommend IdeaCrew’s platform. Because the platform is shared with DC, operations and maintenance costs are divided between the two states based on enrollment, producing significant savings for both.
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