White House awards Accenture HealthCare.gov contract
Washington (CNN) - The Obama administration has tapped the world's largest consulting firm to take over its beleaguered Obamacare website.
Accenture, a consulting and technology services company with 281,000 employees and $28.6 billion in revenue, won the one-year contract to continue fixing HealthCare.gov, the online health insurance marketplace set up by the Affordable Care Act. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services made the announcement Saturday.
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"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. 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," the agency said in a statement.
As lead contractor, the company will be in charge of not only improving the current site, but also preparing it for open enrollment next fall. The task includes 24/7 customer support, eligibility and enrollment functions, and transmitting the personal data in enrollment forms.
“We are honored to be part of the team of technology and healthcare companies and government professionals helping the federal government meet the healthcare coverage needs of its citizens,” said David Moskovitz, the chief executive of Accenture's federal services. “Accenture will bring deep healthcare industry insight as well as proven experience building large-scale, public-facing websites to continue improving HealthCare.gov."
CMS will pay Accenture $45 million for the initial phase of the contract. The two sides are still defining the extent of Accenture's work, and a final value for the contract will be decided then.
Obamacare's site launched on October 1, 2013, to disastrous reviews, as users experienced major problems accessing the site, creating profiles and selecting insurance plans.
The White House later fired the original contractor, CGI Federal, and it cut ties with the company Friday, choosing not to renew its contract.
CGI's original contract for HealthCare.gov was for two years and valued at nearly $100 million.
During testimony before Congress in October, CGI Senior Vice President Cheryl Campbell denied any wrongdoing by her company, telling legislators that it was not "unusual to discover problems" in a system with so many concurrent users that would need to be addressed after going live.
Fixes since have resulted in improved performance of HealthCare.gov. At the end of 2013, more than 2 million people had signed up for coverage, with about half enrolling through the federal marketplace, officials said.
–CNN's Brianna Keilar contributed to this report.
A no bid contract?
I hope they can highlight "Affordable" aspect of ACA.
Most of us can't find that.
Why are we trusting a private company with the social security numbers of our country? Like giving our private information to the Government isn't enough of a breach of our safety.
Let's keep putting our lives up to faith though, that's a great show of protection by our Government!
Here we go again. Another contractor with less than robust credentials. When will they ever learn?
Accenture headquarters are in Dublin, Republic of Ireland while operations headquarters are in Chicago, Illinois.
At least the operations headquarters are in the US.
Accenture handled Enron very well. As a reward they now get to scr.w the whole country. Congratulations.
We at least got a US company... Opps, they are headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Tax payer money headed offshore now?
I hope people like speaking to customer service reps from India. Accenture has the largest workforce out of all the contractors out of India. They are incorporated in Ireland because like all big business out there, profit means more than American jobs!
Wonderful....just what we need. Accenture does all their programming consulting in other countries with non-American's doing the work.....the gift that keeps on taking our jobs....companies like Accenture ... who used to be Arthur Anderson ... anyone remember ENRON???
Another train wreck in the making.
So, the contract was $100 Million for two years (or $50 Million a year)....but the Obama Administration already paid over $200 Million to get it where it is right now.....and they have NOW awarded the NEW contract to another company for $45 Million for only six months, or $90 Million a year? That's almost twice as much as they paid the original company!
WHAT IS GOING ON?
So when a corrupt company changes its name-in this case Arther Anderson of ENRON fame to Accenture- and the Supreme Court overtunes the conviction due to improper jury instruction, they are theoretically left to resume operations in this country? The SEC is not allowed to accept audits from convicted felons, so I guess they escaped with a fortuitous name change, and our healthcare is in fine hands. Incredible. This makes Chris Christie's bridge look like stealing a cookie from a cookie jar. Now, I'm SURE gonna do business with the gov for my healthcare. Who is doing the planning at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave?
Interesting how a non U.S. based company (Headquarters are in Ireland) is given this contract.
Great! Now we will have all of our data in India instead of Canada.
Another nice job for the Democrats! Doesn't anybody remember that Accenture is just the new name of Arthur Andersen Consulting after the Enron scandal? Accenture certainly hopes no one remembers and you can count on Obama for that!
Accenture :
Andersen Consulting's change of name proved to be fortuitous as it avoided damage to its reputation when Arthur Andersen was effectively dissolved as a result of its role in the later Enron scandal.
Accenture is the worst consulting firm in the world.
Accenture? All I have to say is watch out!
Utter idiocy. Didn't anyone check out Accenture's record on big healthcare systems? Did anyone see how badly they screwed up the British system, and then walked away without finishing they job? This is one of the most incompetent technology solution organizations, and I can say that, having worked for them for 3 years.
Doomed to failure (and huge cost overruns).
Accenture is HQ'd in the bahamas and in doing so, avoids paying any US federal taxes. Great job to reward that by giving them a gov't contract.
Just wondering. When computing the "cost of healthcare", is the government including the costs associated with this underperforming website? The taxpayers are paying for it, so I was also wondering if people who are reviewing the costs of their healthcare have included the additional taxes and interest they will be paying for this fiasco in addition to their premiums, co-payments and deductibles.
How can a company being investigated by the DOJ be awarded a contract of such magnitude until they are cleared? How stupid can this administration think the American people are?
Did Obama recover any of the money he already sent to his cronies at CGI? Does Obama ever try to act responsibly?
Too Funny... I deal with Accenture at my job and so far the only thing they have proven is a severe lack of technical skills, no knowledge of how the real world works and they believe everything the vendors sales people tell them which mostly is technically incorrect. Good job Government can't wait to see the next failure.
Will Accenture have any Americans working on this project or will all the work be outsourced and completed by Indians or other visa workers?
Like taking out the trash after the house burns down. Did Michrlle's classmate make a lot of money?