Have Heads Begun to Roll Over Obamacare Imbroglio?

[FarCenter]

Wednesday morning, as U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified about the ongoing problems with healthcare.gov at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, the first head rolled as a result of the Obamacare website debacle. It was announced that Tony Trenkle, the CIO of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the HHS entity responsible for creating the healthcare insurance portal, would be leaving his post as of 15 November. According to an e-mail sent to agency employees on Wednesday, Trenkle is “leaving for the private sector”; the agency’s chief operating officer, Michelle Snyder, announced a reshuffling meant to temporarily fill Trenkle’s role.

...

It was also revealed this week, in documents released (pdf) by investigators working at the behest of the U.S. House of Representatives, that the soon-to-depart Trenkle and CMS COO Snyder signed an internal memo in late September that proves they knew security controls for HealthCare.gov had not been fully tested. To reduce the risk of sensitive personal information being stolen by hackers, they approved a plan that would shore up security over a six-month period. Imagine how much data could be purloined in that amount of time.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/have-heads-begun-to-roll-over-obamacare-imbroglio

[Scuba]

1. It's weird that the otherwise very competent Obama administration outsourced this to a known ...

... right-wing company and didn't seem to be aware that it was going to flop.

Trusting wingers to get the job done showed poor judgement, at best. Yes, the R's hamstrung it through underfunding, but the Administration knew that long before the site went live.

[FarCenter]

4. If you mean CGI Federal, I don't think they are a "right-wing company".

They contributed to the Obama campaign.

[Scuba]

6. Of course they did. But they gave more to Rmoney.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/stevefriess/company-behind-troubled-obamacare-website-donated-heavily-to

executives of CGI Federal personally gave more than twice as much to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney than to President Obama.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I'm wondering who was supposed to inform the President of the progress (or lack thereof)

of the site--not the "White House", I mean the President himself. Did Sebelius deal directly with him, or did she talk to his staff (Jarrett, et al)? I ask this because I remember reading a while back that anonymous cabinet members were frustrated at not having access to the President regularly, and that Hillary Clinton was one of the few that had direct meetings with him. If so, that is a terrible way to shut out info and opinions that he needs to hear.

[FarCenter]

3. Most likely Jarrett, since it is domestic and facing the public.

I think that Jarrett and Sibelius are fairly close. The guy who left is 3 levels down from Sibelius.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Well, one of them did a shitty job keeping the President up to speed.

Or, the people under Sebelius and Tavener didn't inform them of problems until it was too late. Or, someone knew it was all fucked up but actively lied. I am surprised that only one person has been essentially escorted out of the building over all this.

[FarCenter]

7. Nancy-Ann DeParle

As Obama's health czar, DeParle was the administration's "point guard" in overhauling the American health-care system. She worked closely with her old friend, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the administration's big legislative win.

A veteran of the Clinton health-reform wars, DeParle brought institutional memory to the job as well as an understanding of the arcane nooks of government-funded health-insurance plans. She's an expert on Medicare and Medicaid, and helped the Obama administration expand those programs in pursuit of more universal coverage.

Since the Clinton years, she's has a series of plum posts in academia and the private sector, most recently as a managing director at a private-equity firm.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nancy-ann-deparle/gIQAJqWx9O_topic.html

DeParle is no longer with the administration. She left for the world of private equity in August, joining the New York-based firm Consonance Capital Partners.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/11/07/tony-trenkle-the-healthcare-gov-official-who-stepped-down/

Part of success is knowing enough to get out before the shit hits the fan.

Obamacare architect Nancy-Ann DeParle returns to private equity

Nancy-Ann DeParle may have left the Obama White House last January, but she did not leave healthcare behind.

...

Q: You recently rejoined the private equity world after a number of years working in the national healthcare policy arena. Why did you re-enter private equity and what are some of your investment goals with Consonance Capital Partners?

A: I was very happily working in private equity, helping to grow really interesting companies, when I got the call from the president to try and get health reform done. But I had a lot of fun (in private equity). One company we grew was in the managed care space, managing 60,000 Medicare Advantage patients and getting great results with them. Another was a hospital company that we built from the ground up, working with physicians and the community.

Working with the president was an incredible experience. Presidents have been trying to do this since Harry Truman, so you’d have to say the odds were long when I went there but I’m proud to say we got health reform done.

Then I stayed at the president’s request to get implementation up and running, and then I became the Deputy Chief of Staff of Policy. It was a very rich experience. But I was ready to get back to working with companies again, to working with management teams. I was fortunate enough to be able to rejoin three of my former partners. This seems like an incredible time to invest in good ideas in healthcare, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

Emphasis added -- wonder what her definition of "up and running" is?

[TwilightGardener]

9. Thanks--De Parle sounds like one of those advisors that have all sorts

of ideas and input, but know they will never be publicly held accountable--and can walk away with no repercussions. (I distrust Ben Rhodes for the same reason--influential on Obama's foreign policy, but who the fuck is he?) Sebelius was a governor, and the Secretary, so she certainly knew she would be a public face of success or failure--I doubt she would have kept the President in the dark knowingly.

[geek tragedy]

8. Shocking that you would regurgitate a rightwing CBS smear job on the ACA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/11/13/another-cbs-news-story-comes-under-attack/

There may never be a more classic line in the pantheon of empty boasts by competitive news organizations. On Monday night, CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson came up with what looked like a significant story: “Memo warned of “limitless” security risks for HealthCare.gov.” As the story and on-air broadcast alleged, the person entrusted with putting together HealthCare.gov was “apparently kept in the dark about serious failures in the website’s security. Those failures could lead to identity theft among [those] buying insurance.”

How did Attkisson know this? “CBS News has obtained the first look at a partial transcript of his testimony.”

Which is like saying you’ve got the exclusive on half the story.



...


Connolly: Correct that Republicans presented you with a document you hadn’t seen before? Chao: Correct.

Connolly: Correct that the document indicated that there were two “open high-risk” findings in Obamacare exchange? Chao: Correct.

Connolly: Correct that someone leaked parts of your transcript to CBS News? Chao: “It seems that way.”

Connolly: Correct that the document discusses risks relating to two Web site modules on dental plans and qualified health plans? Chao: Correct.

Connolly: Correct that neither of those modules is active at this point? Chao: Correct.

Connolly: Correct that the Sept. 3 memo did not apply to the Obamacare marketplace? Chao: Correct.

Connolly: Correct that modules do not contain any personally identifiable information on consumers? Chao: Correct.

[ljm2002]

10. From what I have seen...

...and without any inside knowledge, it looks to me like those higher up on the food chain -- starting with Sebelius and Obama -- did not have any previous experience overseeing large software projects, so did not truly understand the pitfalls with such projects. That makes it a lot easier for the next layer down to handwave and otherwise obscure the truth about where things stand; and it makes it harder for the top people to get at the truth because they don't know what questions to ask, nor do they recognize red flags that may be right in front of them.

I know it sounds vague, but anyone who has been involved in a large software development project will know what I'm talking about. There are technical issues at every level, lots of dependencies, and for a system like this there are huge integration issues. That means not only a big development effort, but there must be a lot of effort put into testing: integration testing, stress testing, performance testing, functionality testing...

It looks to me like the primary failure areas were system architecture, system integration and project management. Proper project management for a system of this size is an absolute requirement. Proper project management puts the spotlight on problem areas and dependencies that are not being met -- IOW it would raise the red flags early and often, identify problem areas and address them early in the cycle rather than after the product has been released.

All of this, of course, is easier said than done. But again, from my vantage point, it appears that the people at the top did not have the appropriate experience with large software development, and probably accepted handwave explanations from their technical people without even knowing it was handwaving. JMNSHO.

[ProSense]

11. This is a report from last Wednesday, and

it's all BS media speculation and salivating.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) said on Wednesday that Tony Trenkle, the agency’s top technology executive, will step down on Nov. 15 “to take a position in the private sector.” CMS Chief Operating Officer Michelle Snyder delivered the news in an e-mail to employees.

<...>

During congressional testimony last month, lawmakers pressed contractors for names of officials who served as the points of contact for HealthCare.gov’s development. CGI Federal senior vice president Cheryl Campbell identified several: Snyder, Chao and “Peter Oh,” an apparent reference to Mark Oh, the director of Medicare’s Health Insurance Marketplace division.

The announcement on Wednesday didn’t mention the employment status of Tavenner, Chao or Oh, but it said CMS Deputy Director Tim Love would serve as Snyder’s new No. 2. In the e-mail, Snyder said she was “grateful for the dedication and expertise” that Love and Trenkle have brought the agency through their years of service.

The personnel moves this week raise questions about who, if anyone, will be the next to depart from CMS in the wake of HealthCare.gov’s failed start. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the former White House’s healthcare-reform director, are the two highest-level officials who would be among the vulnerable.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/11/07/tony-trenkle-the-healthcare-gov-official-who-stepped-down/

Oh brother. LOL!