"War Room" Notes Describe IT Chaos At Healthcare.gov

dcblogs writes "U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has released 175 pages of "War Room" notes — a collection of notes by federal officials dealing with the problems at Healthcare.gov. They start Oct. 1, the launch day. The War Room notes catalog IT problems — dashboards weren't showing data, servers didn't have the right production data, third party systems weren't connecting to verify data, a key contractor had trouble logging on, and there wasn't enough server capacity to handle the traffic, or enough people on the help desks to answer calls. To top it off, some personnel needed for the effort were furloughed because of the shutdown. Volunteers were needed to work weekends, but there were bureaucratic complications."

Comments

Darrell 'Fraud' Issa

[StephenThomasKrausJr]

Seriously, why cite Issa? They guy still screws about Benghazi, spreads conspiracy theories and is a fraudster. He could discover aliens aliens and I'd still rather hear it from someone else.

Re:Darrell 'Fraud' Issa

[I'm New Around Here]

And the Chinese who see it as "China" and "them".
And the Japanese who see it as "Japan" and "them".
And the Germans who see it as "Germany", "should be Germany", and "them"
And the Russians who see it as "Russia", "the other former SSR's we still want to control", "Europe which we control with our natural gas supplies", and "them".
And the Africans who see it as "My family" and "everyone else".
And the Latinos who see it as "My drug-funded overlords" or "a grave".

I'm sorry, I seemed to have gotten sidetracked there. What was your point again?

Re:Furloughed workers

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting AC because I'm modding in this thread.

> Go-live fiascos like this are quite common in the private sector ...

Of course they are. But they're worse in the government, because a business, at least, has to eventually show a profit. A government can simply print more money or borrow to cover the shortfall.

This isn't an either-or situation. It's depressing that so many people here have already started bulverizing and going political. The truth is, as a general rule, LARGE == DISORGANIZED. Whether it's a government agency or a big business, doesn't matter. Once any organism becomes large enough that you can have employees who simply want to cover their butts rather than work, it becomes a snafu.

My wife works for the federal government (Social Security Admin). Not surprisingly, many of the folks there are big Obamacare supporters. All she has to do to "convert" them on the fly is ask, "put it to you this way: you've seen how things work here. Do you really want the same people deciding whether or not your mother can have surgery?" That gets them every time.

Why? Because benefits are routinely calculated incorrectly. One common scenario is that a bored government employee will increase your benefits. A year or two later, another (equally bored) employee will note that you've been receiving too much money and dun you for a $10,000 or $20,000 overpayment. In half the cases, the reduce benefits to recover the money, which is a hardship on the beneficiary. In the other half, they simply write it off, or accept a letter from the beneficiary stating that it would be an "undue hardship," set it up on $5 a month payments, and basically, some beneficiary gets a $10-20,000 windfall.

Happens ALL the time. ALL THE TIME. These employees know that it's very difficult to fire them, so they half-heartedly do cases while chatting on their mobile phones or playing computer games.

So ... I repeat my wife's question: do you REALLY want these people in charge of your healthcare? I don't.