MINNEAPOLIS, March 6, 2008—HealthMatch, the state project conceived in 1999 to keep track of the the state's 700,000 health care program enrollees, hit another bump in the road when the state ended its relationship with the subcontractor charged with creating the database.

The termination marked the end of a five-year effort.

The idea behind HealthWatch was that it would ensure that all those people were in the most efficient program available to them. Now, until HealthMatch is ready, and no one is sure when that may be, the state must make do with a team of rapidly obsolescing older systems.

Brian Osberg, assistant commissioner at the Department of Human Services, said the state decided it would be better off developing HealthMatch without the contracting firm, ACS State and Local Solutions.

According to the Pioneer Press, the state paid that contractor $8 million of a $22 million contract. It has spent an additional $13 million on staff salaries, contractors, equipment and other expenses to get HealthMatch off the ground.

Osberg said the state did get something for its money. For the first time, it has complete documentation of the 16,000 iterations of health care eligibility rules the state keeps track of. It also has some of the coding for the HealthMatch system, which will be useful when the system is up and running.

But Tuesday's decision will further delay an already long-delayed project.

While Osberg said HealthMatch will be done some day, it's uncertain when that will happen.

"We don't know at this point what the new date will be," Osberg said.

Minnesota's health care programs are among the nation's most complex, according to Pioneer Press article.

And Minnesota is not the only state struggling with the issue. The Pioneer Press article claimed that no state has enjoyed quick success automating health care eligibility systems.

"There is really no place to look for an example of what can be done," Osberg said.

Complete Pioneer Press article