Case study
Keeping a live health insurance platform running through federal audits, acquisitions, and a new way to sell
- Client
- Catch, health insurance for the self-employed
- Our role
- Technical leadership, in-house until Catch’s 2023 acquisition and through Stackpad since
- Length
- Multi-year, ongoing
The situation
Catch helps freelancers, gig workers, and small-business owners find and enroll in health insurance, including the federal subsidies that lower their premiums. Because it connects directly to the federal insurance Marketplace, it’s held to federal rules for how enrollment, subsidies, data access, and records work.
Nothing could go offline. People were enrolling and receiving subsidies the whole time, while the company needed to pass a demanding federal audit, answer buyers’ questions about its technology, and, after its acquisition, change how it goes to market: from selling directly to consumers to selling through insurance agents and brokers.
What we did
- 01
Kept the core running. Enrollment, plan comparison, subsidies, and the federal connection stayed up while everything around them changed.
- 02
Got through the federal audit. We tightened enrollment logic, subsidy calculations, access controls, logging, and documentation to meet the government’s Phase 3 requirements, without pausing service.
- 03
Built the agent and broker pathway and got it approved. This year we built the platform’s agent and broker pathway and took it through CMS approval. It lets Catch sell through agents and brokers, not only direct to consumers, which changes how the whole business goes to market. New roles, permissions, and workflows, built on top of the consumer product rather than replacing it.
- 04
Carried the technology through acquisitions. We answered buyers’ technical questions through each deal, on a live, regulated system.
- 05
Now building for whole agencies. Teams, role hierarchies, and clear ownership of work for organizations, without disrupting individual customers.
What changed
Passed the federal audit.
Enrollment and subsidies kept running throughout.
CMS approved the agent and broker pathway, opening a business-to-business sales channel.
One consumer product grew into products for brokers and agencies on the same foundation.
Stackpad grew out of our in-house roles when Catch was acquired in 2023.
Why it matters to you
If someone serious is about to look at your software (an auditor, an investor, or a buyer), we’ve been on the other side of that table. We know how to make real changes to a system your customers depend on without switching it off. And when the business changes how it sells, we change the software with it, without starting over.
Is your software ready for what’s next?
Start with a Technical Second Opinion: two weeks, a fixed fee, and a straight answer about what you have and what to fix first.