WASHINGTON - House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, today sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius seeking information about contracting for the “design, management, and implementation the federally-facilitated health insurance exchanges (federal exchanges) and the federal-state partnership exchanges" created by Obamacare.
“With only 18 states and the District of Columbia indicating that they intend to establish health insurance exchanges so far, it is clear that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will play a large role in creating and administering federal exchanges and partnership exchanges," Issa and Hatch wrote.
The President’s health care law also establishes a “federal data services hub" to collect information, including income and family characteristics, in order to verify what is submitted by individuals who apply for coverage in the health insurance exchanges.
The lawmakers continued, “Since the contractors chosen by HHS to administer the federal exchanges, the partnership exchanges and the associated federal data services hub will have access to tremendous amounts of sensitive and valuable information, we want to ensure that HHS selects and expends funds on contractors in the best interest of federal taxpayers and health insurance consumers."
Hatch and Issa are seeking a complete list of all contractors and subcontractors selected by HHS to build or provide support services to the federal exchanges and the federal data hub. Hatch and Issa also sent a letter seeking information on conflicts of interest with the contractor selected to develop infrastructure for the federal data hub.
The Department has a deadline of January 4th to comply with both requests.
