The Utah Department of Health has hired Cognosante, a McLean, Va.-based information technology services provider, to help it improve consumer access to its Utah Health Exchange and to help it prepare and adapt to state health insurance exchange requirements in the Affordable Care Act.

The UHE has signed up not quite 200 small employer groups since it opened enrollment last year after beta-testing through all of 2010, according to exchange director Patty Conner. SelectHealth, a part of Intermountain HealthCare system, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealth are the three participating carriers, and between them, they offer about 190 variations of benefits plans to employees of companies registered with the exchange, Conner said.

Cognosante will help with conduct a gap analysis between the exchange's existing IT capabilities and where Utah wants to go with the exchange in the future, including what its IT needs might be under the healthcare reform law, she said. The $143,000 contract has a term of up to 120 days, with expected to be completed by March, Conner said.