Here’s everything you need to know about Obamacare’s error-plagued websites
By Timothy B. Lee, Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2013

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Private companies sell things online all the time. Why is the government having such a hard time setting up an online health insurance marketplace?

If the exchanges were just insurance marketplaces, getting them to work might have been a lot easier. Much of the complexity comes from the fact that the exchanges are used to administer the complex system of subsidies the Affordable Care Act provides to low-income consumers. Figuring out whether a customer is eligible for a subsidy, and if so how much, requires data from a lot of federal and state agencies. Here's a chart from Xerox that illustrates the complexity of the system:

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Contractors See Weeks of Work on Health Site
By Sharon LaFraniere, Ian Austen and Robert Pear, New York Times, Oct. 20, 2013

[....] Administration officials approached the contractors last week to see if they could perform the necessary repairs and reboot the system by Nov. 1. However, that goal struck many contractors as unrealistic, at least for major components of the system. Some specialists working on the project said the online system required such extensive repairs that it might not operate smoothly until after the Dec. 15 deadline for people to sign up for coverage starting in January, although that view is not universally shared.

In interviews, experts said the technological problems of the site went far beyond the roadblocks to creating accounts that continue to prevent legions of users from even registering. Indeed, several said, the login problems, though vexing to consumers, may be the easiest to solve. One specialist said that as many as five million lines of software code may need to be rewritten before the Web site runs properly.

“The account creation and registration problems are masking the problems that will happen later,” said one person involved in the repair effort. [....]

Over the weekend, officials sought to counter pronouncements of failure by announcing that almost half a million people have submitted applications for health insurance through the federal and state marketplaces, about half of them through state exchanges. But officials declined to say how many have actually enrolled in insurance plans, and executives from insurance companies, which receive the enrollment files from the government, say their numbers have been low. The enrollment period ends March 31; those who go without coverage may be subject to fines. [....]

One major problem slowing repairs, people close to the program say, is that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency in charge of the exchange, is responsible for making sure that the separately designed databases and pieces of software from 55 contractors work together. It is not common for a federal agency to assume that role, and numerous people involved in the project said the agency did not have the expertise to do the job and did not fully understand what it entailed. [....]

Communications between the administration and contractors improved over the weekend as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began negotiating agreements with contractors on responsibility and deadlines for repairs, people involved in the project say. They hope to have a plan before a Congressional hearing set for Thursday.

“The issue right now is between C.M.S. and the White House,” a specialist said Friday before communications improved. “Everybody sits and waits and the meter runs.” [....]

Insurance executives said in interviews that they were frustrated because they did not know the government’s plan or schedule for repairs. Insurers have found that the system provides them with incorrect information about some enrollees, repeatedly enrolls and cancels the enrollments of others, and simply loses the enrollments of still others.

Correcting those errors, specialists said, could require extensive rewriting of software code. Insurers said it could be weeks before their data and the government’s could be reconciled.

Accurate enrollment data is essential. Even if consumers bypass the federal Web site and go directly to insurance companies to sign up for coverage, the Treasury Department will still need enrollment data to pay tens of billions of dollars in subsidies promised to insurers. [.....]

Administration finally admits serious bugs, has fired the Center for Medicare Services as the boss, and hired Quality Software Services to replace them. Target date to get it working is the end of November:

‘General Contractor’ Named to Fix Health Web Site
By Robert Pear, New York Times, Oct. 25/26, 2013

WASHINGTON — In an abrupt shift, the Obama administration on Friday named a “general contractor” to fix the troubled Web site of the federal health insurance marketplace, and said the repairs would be completed by the end of next month.

In addition, Jeffrey D. Zients, President Obama’s troubleshooter for the marketplace, said that investigators had found bugs in the software that powers the site.

That finding differs from the original explanation about the problems that have crippled the Web site. Administration officials initially said that the difficulties occurred because the number of people trying to use the site far exceeded their expectations, and they played down other factors.

Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the general contractor that would fix the Web site was Quality Software Services. Mr. Zients said the company would “manage the overall effort,” like a general contractor on a home improvement project.

The company “will prioritize the needed fixes and make sure they get done,” Mr. Zients said.

“The HealthCare.gov site is fixable,” said Mr. Zients, a management expert named as troubleshooter on Tuesday. “It will take a lot of work. A lot of problems need to be addressed. But let me be clear. HealthCare.gov is fixable.”

“By the end of November,” he said, “HealthCare.gov will work smoothly for the vast majority of users.”

That self-imposed deadline comes just two weeks before the Dec. 15 deadline for people to sign up for insurance that takes effect on Jan. 1.

The open enrollment period continues until March 31. People who go without insurance after that date may be subject to tax penalties.

However, the chaos and confusion with the federal marketplace have prompted some Democrats and many Republicans to suggest that the penalties should be deferred or the enrollment period extended.

The designation of a project coordinator represents a radical change in management of the federal insurance marketplace. Until now, the Medicare agency, led by Marilyn B. Tavenner, was the quarterback, or system integrator, trying to coordinate the work of dozens of contractors [....]

Health Site Chief Expects Low Initial Enrollment Number
By Robert Pear, New York Times, Oct. 29/30, 2013

Marilyn B. Tavenner apologized to Americans seeking to use the new exchanges, but repeatedly refused to say how many of those people had actually enrolled in plans since the federal and state marketplaces opened