Probe Exposes Flaws Behind HealthCare.gov Rollout
FILE – This Nov. 5, 2013 file photo shows Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington. Management failures by the Obama administration set the stage for the computer woes that paralyzed the president’s new health care program last fall, nonpartisan investigators said in testimony released Wednesday. […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Management failures by the Obama administration set the stage for computer woes that paralyzed the president’s new health care program last fall, nonpartisan investigators said in a report released Wednesday.
While the administration was publicly assuring consumers that they would soon have seamless online access to health insurance, a chaotic procurement process was about to deliver a stumbling start.
After a months-long investigation, the Government Accountability Office found that the administration lacked “effective planning or oversight practices” for the development of HealthCare.gov, the portal for millions of uninsured Americans.
As a result the government incurred “significant cost increases, schedule slips and delayed system functionality,” William Woods, a GAO contracting expert, said in testimony prepared for a hearing Thursday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. GAO is the nonpartisan investigative agency of Congress.
Spokesman Aaron Albright said the administration takes its responsibility for contract oversight seriously and has already started carrying out improvements that go beyond GAO’s recommendations. The congressional investigators recommended a cost control plan and other changes to establish clear procedures and improve oversight.
The report faults the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service for ineffective oversight. Known as CMS, the agency is part of the Department of Health and Human Services and was designated to administer Obama’s health care law.
— Contractors were not given a coherent plan, and instead jumped around from issue to issue.
— The cost of a glitchy computerized sign-up system for consumers ballooned from $56 million to more than $209 million from Sept. 2011 to Feb. 2014. The cost of the electronic backroom for verifying applicants’ information jumped from $30 million to almost $85 million.
— CMS, representing the administration, failed to follow up on how well the contractors performed.
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