Florida’s insurance website for small businesses is switching contractors. Florida Health Choices was supposed to be up and running last summer but that date has been pushed back to January. part of the delay is due to a clash with the former company that was supposed to be building the website.
The contract with Ceridian Exchange Services was canceled after Florida Health Choices discovered the work was being done outside the U.S., mainly in China. The company also couldn’t build the site it had promised. In a Wednesday meeting of the Health Choices board, members unanimously approved a new contractor: Xerox.
Florida’s health insurance exchange is not the same as the one mandated by the federal healthcare law. Governor Rick Scott has said Florida won’t build an exchange that fits the federal law. But Florida Health Choices could be swallowed up if the federal government has to come in and build one itself.