Hearing Description:
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently convened to examine the failings of Healthcare.gov. Witnesses included key decision makers from Health and Human Services who said that the website will improve.
Hearing Date: November 13, 2013
Hearing Summary: Prepared for AAPS by the Market Institute
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee convened to examine the failings of the federal health insurance exchange website, Healthcare.gov. Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) said in his opening statement that the roll-out of Healthcare.gov was a disaster and the administration should have known they were not ready. For many Americans, premiums are going up, even though they were promised they would go down. He feels they will discover during the process of the design of the website, corners were cut to serve political purposes. HHS still has not produced requested documents to the committee, whereas the private sector has submitted thousands of documents. Finally, the failures of the security of Healthcare.gov, as outlined in documents submitted to the committee, will not be released, as they could empower hackers to attack the website and steal personal information even quicker.
Rep. Cummings said in his opening statement he is happy millions of Americans will now be able to obtain affordable health insurance. Republicans tried to hold the country hostage by not passing spending bills because they want to repeal Obamacare. However, the oversight of contractors not fulfilling their obligations in regards to the website, is warranted. Allegations by Republicans that maintain the Administration and CMS altered aspects of the launch (SHOP, having to login to prices) for political reasons has been proven false.
The first witness, David Powner, Director, Information Technology Management Issues at the Government Accountability Office testified in his opening statement that Healthcare.gov is one of the more troubled IT projects in recent memory.
The second witness, Henry Chao, Deputy Chief Information Officer and Deputy Director of the Office of Information Services at CMS testified in his opening statement consumers have been frustrated in recent weeks, with unexpected problems have slowing the eligibility verification process. End-to-end testing was done, but the problems with launch stemmed from an underestimation of demand. The website is working much better now as CMS has improved software configuration and increased the capacity of the site.
The third witness, Frank Baitman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for IT at HHS testified in his opening statement that HHS CIO authority is an issue according to a GAO report. They are working to restructure and update the IT governance. OMB and other agencies can be doing more to assure that federal IT is not being implemented wastefully. Three steering committees have been created to oversee IT systems from a broader perspective and improve IT oversight.
The fourth witness, Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Office of Science and Technology Policy at The White House testified in his opening statement Americans deserve a website that works and performs well. He has been working on achieving that.
The fifth witness, Steve VanRoekel, U.S. Chief Information Officer and Administrator, Office of Electronic Government at the Office of Management and Budget testified in his opening statement that since October 1st, he has been working on the all-hands on deck effort to see Healthcare.gov is fixed. He is involved in technical aspects of the project and advising the team.
In response to questioning, David Powner said:
- There questions as to whether the system was properly stress tested
- As of September, around $600 million has been spent on the website
- There is no way of knowing how much money it will take to fix
In response to questioning, Henry Chao said:
- The Anonymous Shopper function did not pass testing and that was the reason the shopper was not made available
- More systems are being built out as they see how the process plays out
- Specifications for the website capacity are building towards 30 thousand registrants per hour
In response to questioning, Todd Park said:
- CMS had designed the system to handle 50,000-60,000 concurrent users
- Clearly, on Day 1 the system was overwhelmed
- Website performance is improving, loading time is now under 1 second
- The goal is to have the website functioning smoothly of the majority of Americans on November 30th
- The administration is releasing enrollment numbers “shortly”
In response to questioning, Steve VanRoekel said:
- Security needs to be constantly addressed and Healthcare.gov was no different
Hearing Website: http://oversight.house.gov/hearing/obamacare-implementation-rollout-healthcare-gov/
Testimony:
Mr. Frank Baitman
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Technology
Department of Health and Human Services
Click to access Baitman-HHS-Statement-Healthcare.gov-11-13.pdf
Mr. Henry Chao
Deputy Chief Information Officer and Deputy Director of the Office of Information Services
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Click to access Chao-CMS-Statement-Healthcare.gov-11-13.pdf
Mr. Todd Park
U.S. Chief Technology Officer
Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House
Click to access Park-OSTP-Statement-Healthcare.gov-11-13.pdf
Mr. Steve VanRoekel
U.S. Chief Information Officer and Administrator, Office of Electronic Government
Office of Management and Budget
Click to access VanRoekel-OMB-Statement-Healthcare.gov-11-13.pdf
Mr. David Powner
Director, Information Technology Management Issues
Government Accountability Office
Click to access Powner-GAO-Statement-Healthcare.gov-11-13.pdf
