ST. PAUL, Minn.-The MNsure Board today authorized further negotiation of a contract amendment to expand the scope of work Deloitte will complete. Under this agreement, Deloitte, as the project's general contractor, will provide functional knowledge, advisory services and enhanced project management resources to MNsure and its partner agencies in support of the State's efforts to implement critical components of the work plan.

"The benefit of expanding the relationship with Deloitte includes keeping specialists on-site who are already familiar with our system environment, due to their work on the system's functional assessment," said MNsure CEO Scott Leitz. "Keeping these professionals on board and engaged in the software development lifecycle will help MNsure work towards a successful open enrollment in November."

The board approved MNsure to pay up to $3.2 million to Deloitte, per the terms of the amended contract. The amendment does not extend work beyond the original December 2014 end date.

Deloitte today also presented their preliminary deliverable #4 report on the work plan moving forward. This work plan will provide a crucial framework as the project moves from the evaluation phase into the implementation phase.

Since the launch of MNsure, 275,324 Minnesotans have enrolled in quality, affordable coverage through MNsure. 163,233 are enrolled in Medical Assistance, 59,171 in MinnesotaCare and 52,920 in a Qualified Health Plan. Between September 30, 2013, and May 1, 2014, the number of uninsured Minnesotans fell by 40.6% to a record low.

The work plan Deloitte presented today is the fourth of five deliverables provided to the MNsure Board. As these reports are finalized and approved by MNsure, they are posted on the /about-us/board-committees/doc-library/index.jspMNsure website.