“This contract is a significant milestone in the design and development of a Minnesota health insurance exchange,” Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman said in a press release. “We can now move forward on developing the technology backbone of the exchange, a user friendly tool that will help more than 1.2 million Minnesotans choose the quality coverage they need at a price they can afford.”
The website, which is expected to launch fall 2013, will help people and businesses in the state choose a health insurance plan, similar to how Expedia or Travelocity help people find plane tickets. The software developer, called Cúram, was acquired by IBM in 2011 and is now used in more than 80 government agency projects internationally, according to IBM.
IBM says Cúram software complements the company’s Smarter Cities initiative, which aims to help governments around the globe lower costs and improve efficiency by utilizing data.
