Reporters asked the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange for the recommendation documentation for its health exchange website - I guess in hopes of seeing something which would shed light on why Maryland's website is one of the worst, so bad that lead contractor Noridian was fired two months ago.
The much-touted "transparency" in MHBE contracts was a FAIL from the start. No one can, even now, identify how many contracts have been signed. The MHBE says it doesn't have a list of contracts.
A big reason is that all but one or two, maybe four contracts out of dozens were discussed secretly, approved secretly, and then trotted out in front of the public. Faulty meeting minutes are devoid of useful information. In other cases, contracts simply aren't mentioned until they come up in passing. Estimates vary but the cost of this wreckage is estimated to be somewhere north of $161 million.
So when this seven-page recommendation (scored by we're not sure who) was released, the public gained some real insight into the MHBE Board of Trustees' deliberations.
A friend's comment: "O'Malley and Brown are happy to let Sharfstein take the bullets."