GAO: CMS must improve management of ACA contractors
New enrollees will likely face significant challenges during open enrollment for Affordable Care Act exchanges unless CMS improves its processes, according to William Woods, director of acquisition and sourcing management at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. According to Woods, despite $840 million allocated to develop Healthcare.gov and its supporting systems, inconsistent contractor oversight within the program office and "unclear" roles and responsibilities led to confusion about who had the authority to approve contractor requests for additional work. Woods identified about 40 instances during the development of the federally facilitated marketplace in which CMS staff "inappropriately" authorized contractors to spend more than $30 million.
The comments came in testimony released ahead of a Thursday meeting of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations to discuss the implementation of the ACA. ...