[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Accenture has been selected by the State of California, to implement a statewide health insurance exchange, the California Healthcare Enrollment, Eligibility and Retention System (CalHEERS). The contract award overall was valued at $359 million, comprised of $183 million for initial development and implementation (to be completed by October 2013) and $176 million for continued development and operating costs over approximately three and a half years following the implementation.

The target date for completion is October 2013, to allow individuals to begin pre-enrollment in health plans in advance of the January 2014 Federal deadline for all states to implement a health insurance exchange.

CalHEERS implementation will include deployment of the Accenture Public Service Platform (APSP) and the Accenture Health Benefits Exchange (AHBX). The implementation also will include health insurance exchange software from Getinsured. Other Accenture subcontractors on the project include CGI and Oracle.