Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen is asking Dan Levinson, HHS inspector general, to go over the HealthCare.gov enrollment system development process.
Sebelius included the request for an inspector general review in a response to HealthCare.gov problems.
The launch of the site “was flawed and simply unacceptable,” Sebelius wrote earlier today in a blog entry.
Sebelius urged Levinson to look at the HealthCare.gov program management structure, contractor performance and contractor payment issues.
Sebelius also is calling for Levinson to look at whether contractor specifications were met, and whether performance was monitored adequately.
At a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing in November, Michael Astrue, a former Social Security Administration chief, testified that lack of an HHS inspector general could have contributed to the launch problems.
Sebelius also said she will:
- Ask Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the HHS agency in charge of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exchange program, to create a full-time, permanent chief risk officer position. The person would be in charge of mitigating risk across all CMS programs, including IT.
- Move to rewrite CMS contractor and procurement management rules and procedures and improve procurement training programs.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
