Federal officials filed the document to explain why there wasn’t time to go through a full and open competition process to select a new head contractor to oversee the website for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act federal health insurance exchange. Earlier this month, CMS selected consulting firm Accenture to replace the original head contractor, IT company CGI Federal, following the federal exchange site’s glitch-ridden rollout.
According to the document, CMS “urgently requires” Accenture to develop certain core functionality for the site by mid-March. The site needs a financial management platform that tracks eligibility and enrollment, accounts for subsidy payments for insurance plans and integrates with existing CMS financial management systems. Furthermore, Accenture needs to ensure the platform provides stable and predictable financial accounting and an outlook for the entire program through the administration of risk adjustment, reinsurance and risk corridors, as well as overseeing the program’s operational performance and integrity to support reconciliation calculations and validation with the Internal Revenue Service.
The document states “there is limited time to build this functionality, and failure to deliver the functionality above by mid-March 2014 will result in financial harm to the government.” If the site isn’t complete by that deadline, inaccurate payments issued to health plans could put insurers at financial risks, possibly leading to their default, according to CMS. Additionally, inaccurate forecasting of risk adjustment, reinsurance and risk corridor could harm the entire health insurance industry.
The fact that the exchange site still isn’t fully functional has resulted in scrutiny and criticism from policymakers. Last week, the House passed the Health Exchange Information Disclosure Act, which requires the Obama administration to provide weekly updates on the functionality and enrollment details of the health insurance exchanges.
More Articles on HealthCare.gov:
Federal Official: HealthCare.gov Still Under Construction
House Passes PPACA Security Act
Obama Administration Selects New Lead HealthCare.gov Contractor
