Obama Administration Cuts Contract Early with Healthcare.gov Contractor
The U.S. Government office that oversees the implementation of the Obamacare Healthcare.gov website confirmed Saturday that it cut its contract with CGI Federal early instead of at end of February as originally stipulated.
CGI Federal and the government office that manages the Healthcare.gov website, the Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) mutually agreed to terminate the contract between them.
Accenture, a Chicago-based technology contractor headquartered in Ireland was awarded the contract to continue where CGI left off. The 12-month contract is worth $90 million.
CGI Federal was the prime contractor responsible for the successful Oct 1, 2013 rollout of the website for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) otherwise known as Obamacare. The website would be the starting point for those enrolling in the Obamacare health plan.
However, the roll-out was not smooth and a flood of glitches prevented the vast majority from getting enrolled to meet the March 31, 2014 deadline for obtaining health insurance under the ACA.
Clay Johnson, the CEO of The Department of Better Technology, described to reporters that GGI turned in what he called “subpar” work and the contract needs to end because the project was high profile with disastrous results.
Mr. Johnson at one time served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow and today is an advocate for reforming the way that the Federal Government procures contractual services.
Fred Upton, R-Michigan, chairs the House Energy Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He commented that the ACA is a “sad state” and that changing contractors will more than likely have little effect in turning Obamacare around.
The problems with the Healthcare.gov website have caused much damage to efforts to promote the ACA and has given fuel to Republicans wanting to repeal the law altogether.
President Obama is seeking new ways to procure technology services and hopes that this latest change will fix the myriad of glitches on the website critical to successful implantation of the ACA.
Online News Heard Now
Short URL: http://www.onlinenewsheardnow.com/?p=2562
Posted by