Massachusetts must either repair their state-run insurance exchange program or join the federal one. These are the two options available to the state after its health care exchange program broke with following updates applied to make it comply with federal regulations.

Called The Connector, Massachusetts’ insurance exchange site had originally been developed in response to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise referred to as ObamaCare. The state’s site had also been fully functional until October, when the required updates were applied across the site. These updates were provided by the same group who developed the notoriously-broken federal marketplace, healthcare.gov.

Repairs to this system are expected to be costly, and Massachusetts has asked for another $50 million to purchase software to fix the Connector. This amount is in addition to the $180 million in grant money that has already been used to upgrade the Connector. According to officials, there is yet to be a decision made regarding the extra federal funds.

If the Connector cannot be functional by the summer, Massachusetts may eventually be forced to join the federal insurance marketplace during the enrollment period. Officials from the state emphasize that this would be a temporary transition, meant only to accommodate for the open enrollment period that begins in 2015.

Massachusetts is one of 14 states that elected to develop their own marketplace rather than join the federal exchange. It is one of three states that has had to consider joining the federal enrollment system due to faulty state-run sites. Maryland has asked for more money to help fix their exchange as well and Oregon has opted to join the federally run exchange.

Should Massachusetts be granted the extra funds they requested, they intend to use it to buy software from hCentive, Inc., a company whose technology has already been used in states with working systems, such as Kentucky and Colorado.