The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, July 31, 2014, at 9 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “PPACA Implementation: Updates from CMS and GAO." Andy Slavitt, the Principal Deputy Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and William T. Woods, the Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management for the Government Accountability Office, will testify. The GAO is expected to release a new report next Thursday outlining the issues that plagued HealthCare.gov last fall and the cost of addressing those failures and building the still-incomplete backend.
“Over the past several years this subcommittee has held numerous hearings overseeing the implementation of the president’s health care law, but getting straight answers from the administration has been a constant challenge," said Murphy. “We were told for months that everything was working fine, and yet the backend of the website is still not built to this day. For years, the president assured the American people that this law would lead to lower premiums and would not disrupt the health care coverage or access they had previously. None of these promises held true. As the second open enrollment period approaches, the administration needs to finally be straight with the American people about what steps it is taking in addressing its billion dollar website failure."
Subcommittee members will hear from the administration regarding the status of implementation, specifically the completion of the backend payment and verification systems. This committee learned that there were at least 4 million inconsistencies as of May 27 with no automated system to address them. Members will also review a forthcoming GAO report on the implementation failures from last fall and the cost incurred in addressing them.
NOTE: Slavitt testified at the Energy and Commerce Committee last fall on behalf of Optum/QSSI at the hearing, “PPACA Implementation Failures: Didn’t Know or Didn’t Disclose."
The Majority Memorandum and witness testimony will be available here as they are posted.
