However, Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business, writing for Harvard Business Review, argues the failure of healthcare.gov should be on HHS leadership.
“Blaming programmers, coders, and project managers for disgraceful design flaws and technical turmoil is too easy and obvious. Crap rolls downhill. Look deeper. The underlying truth for virtually every large system’s implementation initiative is that success demands leadership and oversight that holds itself accountable for assuring best practice. Good governance, not superior technical chops or ready access to alpha geeks, is how you build complex systems that deliver reliable and resilient value for money.”
Investigations into the breakdown uncovered stressed and harried programmers who worked to fulfill last minute requests and meet rollout deadlines.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has received much criticism over the rollout, with the New York Times, calling her “an easy target” for Republicans. It’s unclear how closely she was involved in the website development, but regardless of her level of involvement, as head of the department, she is ultimately responsible for ensuring its performance — especially that of its most closely watched initiative in years.
In addition to bringing in IT professionals from around the country to fix healthcare.gov, the White House announced former acting Office of Management and Budget Director Jeff Zients, known for his effective performance management, has been brought in to lead improvement efforts, according to The Hill.
Let’s hope they work, and work quickly. A delay in the individual mandate would be another ding to hospitals, which are already experiencing the cuts they agreed to in return for more insured patients.
