The state on Wednesday announced it's receiving more money to continue work on a health insurance exchange, which is meant to help consumers compare and buy health insurance plans.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce has selected a Virginia-based government services firm to develop the state's health insurance marketplace required by the federal health care overhaul, the Pioneer Press reports. Individuals and small businesses will be able to compare and purchase coverage online beginning late next year.

Nationwide, insurance companies are paying out $1 billion to consumers this month, including $8.9 million from five Minnesota insurance companies. Bloomington-based HealthPartners will provide the most at $6.8 million. The rebates are required by the federal Affordable Care Act, which set a limit on the share of premium revenue that health insurers could dedicate to administration, marketing and profit.

IBM software will be used to determine Minnesotan's eligibility for the various programs to be offered through the online insurance platform, the Star Tribune reports. Virginia-based government services firm Maximus was awarded a $41 million contract last week to take the lead on building the new marketplace -- a component of the federal health care law.

Two law professors at the University of Minnesota say a loophole in the federal health reform plan could leave the public caring for the sickest people and put the proposed online exchanges at financial risk. They tell MPR the law might make it possible for self-insured employers to create plans that aren't attractive to people with serious health needs, leaving them to seek coverage from a public insurance exchange.

Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth, the nation's largest health insurer, told the Associated Press it plans to keep and extend some provisions of the federal health-reform legislation regardless of whether the law is overturned. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling later this month on the law's constitutionality.

Now that the federal health care overhaul has been mostly upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, Minnesota officials are working fast to design a online health insurance marketplace for people to enter basic information, learn whether they qualify for subsidies, compare the options and buy a policy.