WASHINGTON, DC - The House Energy and Commerce Committee today announced that it has invited several of the health care law’s top contractors to testify at this Thursday’s hearing - PPACA Implementation: Didn’t Know or Didn’t Disclose? For months, administration officials and contractors alike assured committee members that implementation was “on track " for the October 1 rollout, but the first three weeks of open enrollment have been defined by significant systems failures. In an effort to understand the problems, who is responsible for them, and when or if the administration recognized the challenges that lay ahead, leaders sent letters to the Department of Health and Human Services, CGI, and QSSI. The committee has invited CGI, QSSI, Serco, and Equifax to testify on Thursday. CGI, Serco, and Equifax have confirmed. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is expected to testify before the full committee next Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, and answer all of the committee’s questions.
“We are now entering week four of the botched health care rollout, and with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent for a system that still does not work, Congress and the American people deserve answers. It is not fair to force Americans to buy a product that is too expensive and not accessible," said Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI). “We were told repeatedly that implementation was ‘on track,’ and it is now time for all those responsible to explain what happened. And as the administration continues to withhold important details and enrollment figures, I hope Secretary Sebelius is ready to give answers and finally live up to the president’s celebrated claims of transparency."
NOTE: The Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on September 10 with representatives from a number of the companies that won contracts from the administration.