Ten days from open enrollment, MNsure bugs persist

IT workers on Minnesota's health insurance exchange still are dealing with serious bugs 10 days before the next open enrollment period begins.

The MNsure website has been hobbled by dozens of technical problems, causing frustration for many users.

During a MNsure board meeting Wednesday, Brian Keane, a principal with Deloitte Consulting, which the state hired to fix the troubled website, said the current code is much better than last year's, but about 10 major problems remain.

Keane said that testers are working on bugs in the website's code. The consultant reported overall the repair effort has made substantial progress in fixing a list of some 400 problems.

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"And we've closed over 70 percent of them, which isn't a bad closure rate. We'd like to see it a little higher," Keane said.

That's a change from earlier this year when technical issues were harder to resolve. "I think we would knock one down, it would create three," Keane told board members.

The MNsure board hired Deloitte last April for $5 million to overhaul the MNsure site.

Work on the website for Minnesota's health insurance exchange could continue right up until a new enrollment period begins Saturday, November 15. The enrollment period ends in mid-February.

Minnesotans have to sign up by December 15 if they want health coverage starting January 1.