As an open enrollment deadline draws near, HealthCare.gov​ is once again having issues, according to a USA Today report.

The folks at Healthsherpa.com, however, tell me that it’s working fine. Last year, Ning Liang, one of the founders of the site, wrote me last year to tell me about updates to the site. Ling said that they can now enroll people in ACA marketplace plans, including subsidies.

According to Liang, as of June 2014 they were “the only place besides Healthcare.gov where this is possible. We have signed an agreement with CMS as a web based entity to do this. We are directly integrated with the federal data hub, so going through us is identical to going through Healthcare.gov.”

To date, they’ve helped more than 110,000 people sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

What a missed opportunity to have created a thriving ecosystem of other Web-based entities that are alternatives to the default government website.