Obama appoints Jeffrey Zients to fix healthcare website

Obama appoints Jeffrey Zients to fix healthcare website

Officials pledge site will be fixed by late November as Zients says he will provide 'relentless focus on speed and execution'

Dominic Rushe

theguardian.com, Friday 25 October 2013 14.37 EDT 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/25/obama-appoints-jeffrey-zients-healthcare

The troubled healthcare.gov website will be fixed by late November, the Obama administration said Friday as the US government appointed a new contractor to head the scheme.

Jeffrey Zients, President Obama's appointee to fix the problems, promised "relentless focus on speed and execution", nearly a month into the botched healthcare rollout, which has prevented people from signing up for Obama's landmark program.

Administration officials announced Friday that one of the website's subcontractors – QSSI – would now lead the initiative to fix the healthcare.gov site. Officials at the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services had previously taken the lead role.

"By the end of November, healthcare.gov will work smoothly for the vast majority of users," Zients said Friday. "The healthcare.gov site is fixable. It will take a lot of work, and there are a lot of problems that need to be addressed."

Zients, who has been the president's go-to man for problem solving, said the government and private-sector team providing the "tech surge" had finished an assessment of the website's flaws.

Zients said that the volume of applications on the site had caused initial problems. The site received 14.6m visitors in its first days of activity. But Zients added that problems across the site had exacerbated the situation, leading to frozen pages and error messages.

"These are bugs that prevent the software from performing the way it's supposed to work," he said. "There's a punch list of fixes, and we're going to punch them out one by one."

Andrew Slavitt, the executive vice-president at QSSI, told Congress this week that the software was now "keeping pace with demand" and had had "error rates close to zero" since October 8.

Healthcare.gov covers people in the 36 states that declined to run their own health-insurance exchanges. About 700,000 applications have been begun nationwide, and half of them have come in through the website. The White House aims to have 7m uninsured Americans covered by the scheme by the end of March.

Senate Democrats wrote to health secretary Kathleen Sebelius calling for an extension of the healthcare law's open enrolment period while the site's issues are fixed.

"Given the existing problems with healthcare.gov and other state-run marketplace websites that depend on the federally-administered website, we urge you to consider extending open enrollment beyond the current end date of March 31, 2014," the senators wrote.

"Extending this period will give consumers critical time in which to become familiar with the website and choose a plan that is best for them. Individuals should not be penalised for lack of coverage if they are unable to purchase health insurance due to technical problems."

Zients' announcement follows an acrimonious hearing Thursday where Republicans charged that the government knew about major glitches in the site before launch and contractors said they had warned the government of issues.

Jeffrey Zients

Jeffrey D. Zients is the deputy director at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for the Barack Obama administration.

Note: Thomas A. Scully was an associate director at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Donald M. Berwick was the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Melody C. Barnes was the EVP for the Center for American Progress, the domestic policy council, director for the Barack Obama administration, and is Barack Obama’s golf partner.

Ezekiel Emanuel was the health care policy adviser at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for the Barack Obama administration, and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Jeanne Lambrew was the health policy associate director and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and is the deputy assistant to the president for health policy for the Barack Obama administration.

Robert Gordon is an executive associate director for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell is a director at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, was the deputy director for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and the president, global development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Christopher Edley Jr. was an associate director for economics & government for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and is a U.S. program advisory panel member for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

James A. Nussle was a director at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and is a U.S. program advisory panel member for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was a funder for the Center for American Progress, and the Committee for Economic Development.

George Soros was a supporter for the Center for American Progress, and is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, and the Committee for Economic Development.

John P. White was the deputy director for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.

George P. Shultz was a director at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.

Donna S. Morea was a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.

CGI Group Inc. was the contractor that developed Healthcare.gov web site for Obamacare.

Obamacare is Barack Obama’s signature policy initiative.