Website Costs

Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary, is appearing before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee later today for a Republican-led hearing that may focus on the costs for building and repairing healthcare.gov.

While a subset of her agency has said it spent $319 million building the federally run marketplace through October, there is no conclusive way to track spending, including what contractors CGI Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. have received.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is part of Sebelius’s agency, had obligated $630 million for the work through September, Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for CMS, has said.

Sebelius today said she’s asked for a formal investigation of what went wrong with the Oct. 1 debut, and has taken steps to avoid future debacles, including the creation of a chief risk officer position within CMS that will review purchases and contracts related to information technology.

Inspector General

“We need a thorough review of the contractor performance and program management structure that resulted in the flawed launch of the website,” Sebelius said in a blog post today. “I am asking the Inspector General to review the acquisition process, overall program management, and contractor performance and payment issues related to the development and management of the healthcare.gov website.”

In the meantime, more than 1 million visitors were willing to give the Obamacare website another chance on Dec. 2, a day after the government said it had made software repairs that ensure the site is functional for most users.

About 17,900 Floridians signed up through the end of November, the most of any state using the federal exchange, and 14,038 Texans enrolled, according to today’s HHS report.

California, one of the 14 states to create its own health marketplace, led all states in enrollment, with about 107,000 signed up through Nov. 30. About 45,500 New Yorkers selected plans through their state’s program, according to the report.