Panel probes website woes
Contractors say HealthCare.gov was tested late
WASHINGTON — Developers of the troubled Affordable Care Act website confirmed Thursday that a last-minute decision requiring users to sign up before shopping for insurance caused the system to bottleneck and acknowledged they did not conduct an “end-to-end” test until just before this month’s botched rollout.
The federal contractors sought to shift responsibility for the more than $400 million project to the Obama administration, providing fuel for Republicans who want to kill Obamacare.
The White House’s Democratic allies have expressed a growing anxiety over what went wrong with President Barack Obama’s signature achievement — and when it will be fixed.
After withholding basic information about the program’s progress so far, the administration announced Thursday that 700,000 applications had been completed for insurance coverage. The administration conceded that testing was not done earlier because of the tight deadline to launch HealthCare.gov by Oct. 1.
“This system just wasn’t tested enough, especially for high volumes,” said Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, during a call with reporters. The government agency administered the project for the Department of Health and Human Services.
On Capitol Hill, GOP leaders have made no secret that the House hearing rooms will become the next venue for the battle over the law, and a grueling session Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee opened a new front in that campaign as officials were called before the panel.
“Why did they assure us the website would work? Did they not know?” said panel Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., noting Heath and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is due to testify soon. “That’s what we are looking to find out, with the contractors today, and with Secretary Sebelius next week.”
Some of the most prominent Democratic supporters of the health care law have grown increasingly exasperated over the site’s performance.
The website was supposed to be an easy way for uninsured Americans to buy affordable health care, but users have had trouble sign- ing on, getting accurate cost estimates and completing enrollment.
“How soon will it take to repair these glitches?” asked Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
“I have a team of people working around the clock trying to get this quickly resolved,” said Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president at CGI Federal, the lead federal contractor.
Campbell acknowledged that the “end-to-end” test of the website was not done until two weeks before its debut. But the contractor suggested in written testimony that it was the responsibility of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which “serves the important role of systems integrator or ‘quarterback’ on this project and is the ultimate responsible party for the end-to-end performance.”
Many of the problems appeared to stem from a last-minute change to the site’s operation that required site visitors to sign up rather than simply browse through the various health insurance policies that are available.
The extra step created a bottleneck, according to Andrew Slavitt, group executive vice president at Optum, a business unit of UnitedHealth Group, whose Quality Software Services Inc. handled that aspect of the system as a subcontractor.
“We don’t know why the decision was made,” Slavitt said. He testified that the change was made within 10 days of the rollout, and that his group suggested at the time that more testing would be needed.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has suggested the late switch was initiated by the White House to prevent Americans from experiencing “sticker shock” over the costs of the health insurance policies.
Bataille, the administration spokeswoman, said the intent was to focus resources to the online application and other aspects of the site. “We made a business decision to prioritize resources,” she said.
The White House is scrambling to prevent further fallout from the health care law, especially a suggestion from some lawmakers to postpone the law’s requirement that all Americans carry insurance in 2014, or face a fine, unless the website is improved.
This week, the administration clarified that the deadline for signing up is March 31, the end of open enrollment.
Under the law, people who go without insurance for three consecutive months can face the tax penalty.
In the hearing room, the soaring rhetoric was a reminder that the heated debate over the law is far from over.
Republicans formed an unusual alliance with Democrats on the committee who expressed disbelief that the website’s high traffic volumes were to blame for its shortcomings.
“That’s really kind of a lame excuse,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat who represents Silicon Valley. “Amazon and eBay don’t crash the week before Christmas.”
Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., called the website’s debut “one of the biggest IT disasters in government history.”