Free Republic

Has HHS gone from the CGI Federal frying pan into the Accenture fire? A month ago, the HHS unit responsible for Healthcare.gov dumped its original prime contractor and awarded the project to Accenture in a no-bid assignment, a move that raised eyebrows especially considering how little time was left in the enrollment cycle to get the web portal problems resolved. Now, a new Washington Post report raises even more eyebrows about the decision, given Accenture’s troubled history with federal contracts: Accenture, the contractor urgently tapped to help fix the federal health-insurance Web site, is a favorite of corporate America but...

The contractor building the financial management system for Healthcare.gov is being blamed by a Houston hospital for delayed Medicare reimbursements that have caused the hospital to miss payrolls for weeks. Novitas Solutions is the federal government's new Medicare payment processor for the south-central region of the country hired by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS.) ABC-KTRK in Houston reports: According to the CEO Jason Leday, more than 150 employees haven't been paid in nearly a month. "I understand that they have children and a house payment, bills....

A year after Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc across the eastern United States, only a fraction of the aid money earmarked for recovery has been used, in what some claim is a painfully slow and opaque process. Only $5.2 billion of the pledged $47.9 billion had been tapped by cities and states by the end of August, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. And tracking those funds has been complicated, lawmakers said. "Transparency is woefully lacking. We don't know where the money is. We know people have been approved for grants, but the money has not been...