Kelly Kennedy and Catalina Camia, USA TODAY 8:57 a.m. EDT October 24, 2013
This Oct. 21, 2013, photo shows the U.S. government internet health insurance exchange Healthcare.gov.(Photo: Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON -- Contractors who built the troubled health care website will testify Thursday that confusion between the tech firms and high demand for insurance led to problems with the HealthCare.gov site.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing comes as complaints about the website grow louder in Congress, threatening to tarnish the legacy of President Obama's signature domestic achievement.
Obama's Democratic allies, including senators up for re-election next year, are joining Republicans in calling for an extension to the open enrollment period and clarification about when penalties will be levied on people who don't obtain insurance as the law requires.
The White House said Wednesday night that it will soon issue policy guidance making clear that people who sign up for insurance by March 31, 2014 will not face a penalty.
STORY: Health website not alone among tech blunders
Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI Federal, said in testimony provided to the committee for the hearing that another contractor was responsible for the technology that allowed users to create new accounts and which caused the initial bottleneck issues on the site.
Campbell will also say that CGI is responsible for some of the problems, too.
"Now, as more and more users have been able to proceed to the (exchange) over the past several days, more individuals have enrolled in qualified insurance plans," Campbell's prepared testimony says. "However, the increased number of transactions in the (exchange) have caused system performance issues (such as slow response times or data assurance issues) that now need to be addressed through tuning, optimization, and application improvements."
Officials from Optum/QSSI, Equifax Workforce Solutions and Serco will also testify alongside Campbell. The committee had wanted Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to appear also, but she cited a scheduling conflict and will appear next week.
Obama has made fixing the health care website a top priority, as he and the administration seek to emphasize that the law is more than a piece of technology. The president has launched what he is calling a "tech surge" and tapped Jeffrey Zients, a former deputy White House budget director, to spearhead the effort to fix the troubled website.
The administration also created a series of "alpha teams" with insurance companies, after Sebelius met with industry executives and White House officials Wednesday. Sebelius said the teams will "iron out kinks in both the (enrollment) forms and in direct enrollment."
Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, the most vulnerable Senate Democrat on the ballot in 2014, joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in calling on the White House to extend open enrollment beyond March 31, 2014 and to provide guidance on penalities for the uninsured.
"I believe, given the technical issues, it makes sense to extend the time for people to sign up," Pryor said in a statement Wednesday. "In addition, the administration should state clearly how the enforcement mechanism will work if people can't sign up in time."
Contributing: David Jackson
This Oct. 21, 2013, photo shows the U.S. government internet health insurance exchange Healthcare.gov.(Photo: Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON -- Contractors who built the troubled health care website will testify Thursday that confusion between the tech firms and high demand for insurance led to problems with the HealthCare.gov site.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing comes as complaints about the website grow louder in Congress, threatening to tarnish the legacy of President Obama's signature domestic achievement.
Obama's Democratic allies, including senators up for re-election next year, are joining Republicans in calling for an extension to the open enrollment period and clarification about when penalties will be levied on people who don't obtain insurance as the law requires.
The White House said Wednesday night that it will soon issue policy guidance making clear that people who sign up for insurance by March 31, 2014 will not face a penalty.
STORY: Health website not alone among tech blunders
Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI Federal, said in testimony provided to the committee for the hearing that another contractor was responsible for the technology that allowed users to create new accounts and which caused the initial bottleneck issues on the site.
Campbell will also say that CGI is responsible for some of the problems, too.
"Now, as more and more users have been able to proceed to the (exchange) over the past several days, more individuals have enrolled in qualified insurance plans," Campbell's prepared testimony says. "However, the increased number of transactions in the (exchange) have caused system performance issues (such as slow response times or data assurance issues) that now need to be addressed through tuning, optimization, and application improvements."
Officials from Optum/QSSI, Equifax Workforce Solutions and Serco will also testify alongside Campbell. The committee had wanted Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to appear also, but she cited a scheduling conflict and will appear next week.
Obama has made fixing the health care website a top priority, as he and the administration seek to emphasize that the law is more than a piece of technology. The president has launched what he is calling a "tech surge" and tapped Jeffrey Zients, a former deputy White House budget director, to spearhead the effort to fix the troubled website.
The administration also created a series of "alpha teams" with insurance companies, after Sebelius met with industry executives and White House officials Wednesday. Sebelius said the teams will "iron out kinks in both the (enrollment) forms and in direct enrollment."
Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, the most vulnerable Senate Democrat on the ballot in 2014, joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in calling on the White House to extend open enrollment beyond March 31, 2014 and to provide guidance on penalities for the uninsured.
"I believe, given the technical issues, it makes sense to extend the time for people to sign up," Pryor said in a statement Wednesday. "In addition, the administration should state clearly how the enforcement mechanism will work if people can't sign up in time."
Contributing: David Jackson