Health Exchange Enhancements

The Challenge

Washington’s Health Benefit Exchange marketplace — built by Deloitte — was effective at its core function of enabling residents to compare and select health plans. But the platform lacked the content management capabilities needed to operate a large-scale, consumer-facing exchange. As the marketplace grew and market conditions shifted, the HBE marketing team needed to respond quickly to changes: updating plan information, adjusting messaging, and refining the consumer experience. The Java-based application architecture made those updates slow and technically dependent — a significant constraint for an exchange that needs to stay current and responsive.

Our Approach

GovWebworks deployed Drupal 8 as a content management layer integrated into the existing exchange application, without requiring a rebuild of the underlying Java platform. The team generated static HTML pages, fields, and blocks from Drupal for inclusion in the Java application — a technically creative approach that worked within the constraints of the existing architecture rather than fighting them. A staging environment replication of the application pages allowed content editors to preview changes accurately before publishing. Mobile-responsive design improvements were incorporated alongside the CMS work.

The Result

The integrated solution gave the HBE marketing team enhanced publishing capabilities — enabling them to respond immediately to consumer needs and changes in the marketplace without developer intervention. The approach future-proofed the content management layer while respecting the technical constraints of the exchange’s existing infrastructure, delivering meaningful operational agility at an organization where the ability to respond quickly to evolving health insurance market conditions is essential.