Link here. Short version: clearly Cover Oregon once offended a gypsy or violated a mummy’s tomb or possibly didn’t kiss up enough to a Greek god. It’s the only way to explain why that site has become a karmic chew toy. Especially since now it’s got King v. Burwell hanging over its head by a thread…
Moe Lane
PS: I don’t know how King v. Burwell is going to be decided, and neither does anybody else.
And this is how corruption works on the Pacific Coast.
https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/563125239731990530
@BrianFaughnan calls this story ‘Flaming Skull’-worthy, and I am inclined to agree:
Software vendor Oracle provided information last week to the U.S. House and Energy Committee claiming the website was operational in February, but that the state of Oregon pulled the plug on it for political reasons.
[snip]
“Cover Oregon executives have stated to Oracle that the application functionality is sufficient to support individual enrollment,” Oracle president Safra Catz wrote in a letter addressed to Cover Oregon interim director Clyde Hamstreet and state CIO Alex Pettit. “However, Cover Oregon has not agreed to give individuals direct access to the application. Thus Cover Oregon, not Oracle, made the decision to keep the exchange closed to individuals even though the functionality has been delivered by Oracle.”
The allegation here – and it’s unusually blunt, too – from Oracle is that they were given the boot despite their allegedly eventually having a working system because: a, competitor Deloitte Consulting provided a self-serving analysis of the situation; and b, Governor John Kitzhaber is planning to run for a fourth term on how shocked, shocked! he is that there was incompetence going on at this establishment. Katu.com says that the presentation didn’t point any fingers, but it’s hard how you define this: Continue reading Oracle claims John Kitzhaber killed eventually-functional Cover Oregon site for political purposes.
It’s official: Oregon dropping its Obamacare exchange — #FF @ChelseaKATU #liveonk2
— David Freddoso (@freddoso) April 24, 2014
Hold on, let me make this clear. Cover Oregon is no more. Continue reading Welp: Cover Oregon has died.
That’s under current conditions (keep the database, keep current vendor Oracle), at least according to the Deloitte Development report that the state of Oregon commissioned on how to get from under the horrible state exchange disaster inflicted on Oregon by Governor John Kitzhaber and his fellow Democrats. Reading the report, it looks like Deloitte’s recommendation would be that Oregon simply cut Cover Oregon loose and join the federal exchange. As the Oregonian noted:
Oregon could hook up to the federal exchange far sooner and for a fraction of the cost, according to the report obtained by The Oregonian. A hybrid solution mixing the federal exchange and an unfinished Oracle-based small-business section of the exchange would also be faster than sticking with the current plan, as well as cheaper.
Continue reading Report: it will take $45M and almost two years to ‘fix’ Cover Oregon.
I dunno if ‘open question’ is the right term to use.
Oracle Corp., the giant technology company at the center of the Cover Oregon controversy, has significantly downsized its army of software developers trying to salvage Oregon’s health insurance exchange website.
What that means for the Oregon exchange — which has been plagued by bugs and remains largely unfinished — is an open question. Exchange acting director Bruce Goldberg did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Background: in February of 2013 the relevant players in the Cover Oregon Obamacare debacle – and they knew that it was a debacle, even then; the Democrat-controlled Oregon state government just forgot to tell anyone – had a rather emotionally intense meeting that produced, among other things*, a list of issues/action items/whatnot. And that’s important, because…
Tucked away on page four of that list is a brief item labeled “Oracle Contract Issues.” It touches on contracts and accounting the state used with Oracle – the vendor hired to provide much of the website’s software and technical support – that were “inconsistent with generally acceptably industry best practice procedures.”
Here’s where things get interesting.
The report goes on to say the issue was resolved, citing an audit by the Secretary of State’s office that “found everything in order.”
But the KATU On Your Side Investigators have learned that that audit – the only piece of evidence used to dismiss major accountability problems surrounding a contract that eventually grew to $119 million – doesn’t exist.
Continue reading *Somebody* at Cover Oregon will end up going to jail. #obamacare
“Any beacon you can hear. Six minutes! All hands, save yourselves, pick up your mates. Home on any beacon! Sauve qui* -”…
Oregon’s troubled health insurance exchange began robocalling applicants Friday, warning them that if they don’t receive enrollment confirmation by Monday, they should seek coverage elsewhere for Jan. 1.
“If you haven’t heard from us by Dec. 23, it is unlikely your application will be processed for Jan. 1 insurance coverage,” a woman’s voice on the pre-recorded call from Cover Oregon says. “If you want to be sure you have insurance coverage starting Jan. 1, you have other options.”
…Heckuva job, John Kitzhaber. Heck of a job.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Via @Herminator.
**If you inexplicably don’t want to read a classic science fiction novel that makes the Activist Left spit, fine: ‘sauve qui peut’ means ‘every man for himself.’
(Via Jim Geraghty) Why did it take them until September 28th to notice?
[On Sept. 28, Cover Oregon’s team] had gathered on a Saturday for final testing of the state’s health insurance exchange. More than a website, it was a gateway to a new era of better, more affordable, more democratic health care.
But their high hopes turned to shock and alarm when the website didn’t work. It crashed, it flashed repeated error messages, it couldn’t process the most routine insurance enrollment scenario.
[snip]
“Shut it down,” said Rocky King, Cover Oregon’s executive director. “Let’s not waste anybody else’s time here.”
Only, that’s precisely what they did: Continue reading Cover Oregon noticed that the site wasn’t ready on September 28th. #obamacare
The (Democratic-controlled) Oregon state government will not have its website up and running in time. I repeat: the Oregon state government will not have its website up and running in time. Rely on the website, and you will have gaps in coverage.
People who want health coverage beginning in January through Oregon’s troubled insurance exchange need to act fast.
State officials said Wednesday they don’t expect to have the online enrollment system working in time for people to enroll in plans that begin on the first of the year. They also announced that paper applications, their backup system, must be mailed within just two weeks, by Dec. 4.
[snip]
[Exchange Director Rocky] King said the latest projections show the system should be ready for individuals to enroll online beginning Dec. 16, which would mean people who enroll on the first day would get coverage beginning in February.