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White House dumps main Healthcare.gov contractor

White House dumps main Healthcare.gov contractor

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Obamacare Healthcare.gov website (STOCK)
Obamacare Healthcare.gov website (STOCK)

Finally, someone's getting fired over the Healthcare.gov debacle. The Washington Post is reporting that the administration is about to cut ties with CGI Federal, the contractor that built most of the error-riddled website where Americans are supposed to buy health insurance. CGI will be replaced by Accenture as the primary contractor on Healthcare.gov.

Critics were disappointed to see the same contractors who had screwed things up on Healthcare.gov also being paid to fix them. The high profile failure highlighted the need for reform of the way the government buys and manages IT projects, but change seemed to be coming slowly. At first it seemed as if no one would be held responsible for the mess, so today's news is encouraging.

At first it seemed as if no one would be held responsible for the mess

When the site first launched, it buckled under the traffic and served up nonsensical errors that frustrated users. On the first day, only six people were able to sign up. More than three months after launch, Healthcare.gov is now working for most people — but it's still unclear how much damage has been done to public confidence. Perhaps Accenture can help rebuild the site's reputation.

Update: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that oversees Healthcare.gov, has confirmed the switch. "As CMS moves forward in our efforts to help consumers access quality, affordable health coverage, we have selected Accenture to become the lead contractor for the HealthCare.gov portal and to prepare for next year’s open enrollment period," the agency says in a statement. "We are pleased that more than 1.1 million consumers already have enrolled in a private plan in the federal Marketplace thanks to existing efforts and look forward to working with all of our contract partners to ensure a smooth transition of this work."