Marketplace System Integration

Cogent People Inc. provided Program Management, Project Management, and System Integration services for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Marketplace Advisor and System Integrator (MSI) contract.

This contract involved the oversight and integration of the different systems and components of the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM, also known as Healthcare.gov) in support of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The following key marketplace systems were supported on this contract:

Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM or healthcare.gov), a web-based portal to allow consumers to register, browse, compare, and purchase health insurance
Data Services Hub (DSH), a web services based mediator for the exchange of information and data between various marketplace systems, viz. the federal and state marketplaces, insurance providers, and federal agencies considered trusted data sources, such as the IRS, DHS, SSA, OPM, Peace Corps, Medicaid, and CHIP. Interactions between marketplace systems and external systems, including the trusted data sources, occurred through SOAP based web services.
State Based Marketplaces (SBM), the States’ independent implementation of FFM functionality, interfaced with FFM and DSH for data exchanges and operations.
Operational Analytics, data recorded in the FFM in comparison with policy data received from issuer systems
Multidimensional Information Data Analytics System (MIDAS), a data warehouse and reporting system for the marketplace

Cogent People managed the planning of systems design and development, and coordinated systems integration. Aligned concurrent projects to Marketplace implementation goals and guided them through the system development lifecycle. At any given time, there were several vendor teams in different stages of a system development within the Marketplace domain. We managed stakeholder communications, requirements and interface definitions, schedule consolidation, and project & risk reporting.

Our team led the development of the Marketplace Data Strategy through a series of engagements with the Marketplace CTO, CCIIO Executive Leadership and MITG leadership. The proposed strategy was commended for its completeness and vision, and well received by the CCIIO leadership and was being considered for adoption by the executive leadership.

Throughout this engagement, our team was sought by various CMS business groups and divisions – Payment Policy and Financial Management Group (PPFMG), Division of Enrollment Payment Data (DEPD), Division of Financial Transfers and Operations (DFTO) and Marketplace Plan Management Group (MPMG) for our thoughtful insights and our ability to effectively manage any crisis. Our team’s efforts to proactively understand and address business problems were universally appreciated.