Posted on 12/11/2013 5:41:35 AM PST by markomalley
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday said she was “taking steps” to review the “flawed launch of healthcare.gov,” including asking her department’s inspector general to conduct a thorough probe.
“The launch of HealthCare.gov was flawed and simply unacceptable,” said Sebelius in a blog posted on the HHS website.
“I believe strongly in the need for accountability, and in the importance of being good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” she continued. “I am announcing a series of initial steps in the process of better understanding the structural and managerial policies that led to the flawed launch of HealthCare.gov.”
“I have asked our Inspector General, Dan Levinson, to review the development of HealthCare.gov. We need a thorough review of the contractor performance and program management structure that resulted in the flawed launch of the website,” announced the secretary. “I am asking the Inspector General to review the acquisition process, overall program management, and contractor performance and payment issues related to the development and management of the HealthCare.gov website.”
Sebelius vowed that she would “take action to address the Inspector General’s findings.”
She also said she would tap Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner to create and fill a new post for a “CMS chief risk officer.”
Sebelius said the risk officer’s first task would be to review and report in 60 days on the agency’s information technology contracting, “starting with identifying the risk factors that impeded the successful launch of the HealthCare.gov website.”
The third step announced by Sebelius involves retraining CMS employees on “best practices” for hiring and managing contractors.
The steps come as Sebelius prepares to head back to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.
The disastrous rollout of the health care's insurance marketplaces has damaged President Obama in the polls and undercut support for his signature domestic achievement. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Wednesday showed that 50 percent viewed the health law as a bad idea.
It is unlikely though that Sebelius’s steps will assuage congressional anger over the botched healthcare.gov website. Congressional Republicans are pushing ahead with their probes and even many Democrats, worried about the fallout ahead of the 2014 midterms, have called on Obama to fire those officials responsible.
The White House, though, has said that Obama is focused on making the health law work for all Americans and is launching a drive to boost enrollment in the insurance exchanges.
The administration says they have fixed the website so that most users enjoy a smooth experience.
“While there is still more work to do, HealthCare.Gov is working faster, it’s responding quicker, and we are able to handle larger volumes of concurrent users,” said Sebelius.
The punchlines just keep writing themselves.
(Seriously, if she wanted a real investigation, she'd hire the GAO -- which does not work for any executive branch agency. Like that's going to happen)
She was repeatedly warned that the launch was not ready.
It’s like being told “don’t go out on the roads, they’re covered with ice”, but you do anyhow, have a crash, and you want an investigation of why the roads were icy.
..gonna be as busy as a one eyed cat watching five rats holes covering this up...BUT, as this administration is known, it will screw up, BUT WHAT DOES IT MATTER?, no one will be fired, more like promoted.
Doesn't Sibelius know that accountability starts at the top?
So for the next three years she won’t be answering any congressional questions because “ It would be premature for me to answer that while the I.G. is conducting his inquiry”
Thankfully for her, her Internal IG is now fully paid-for by Obamacare...
“Sebelius vowed that she would “take action to address the Inspector General’s findings.”
Meaningless jumble of vacuous words...
Read this to understand how liberals talk without saying anything... it’s a real eye-opener.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3100587/posts
Liberal Newspeak is the chirpy announcer in a drug commercial soothingly telling you about all the fatal side effects while on screen couples have romantic picnics and go whitewater rafting. That is the job of most of the news media. Forget outliers like MSNBC which caters to a self-consciously prog crowd. The media’s real job is to be that announcer telling you that if you vote liberal, your taxes will go up, your job will go to China and you will die, without getting you upset about the terrible news.
Good move on her part. /S
Now she can just answer all questions with “I can’t comment about an on-going investigation”.
Expect the following: Congressman, because of an investigation I initiated and is ongoing, I cannot answer that question.
I guess once you become a high priest in the progressive religion of Government, you are never held accountable, and it will always be some lesser being that suffers for your failures ... like a video maker perhaps, or a coder on a website.
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