It\u2019s about freaking time. \u00a0\u00a0And for what it\u2019s worth, so is the HHS Office of the Inspector General\u00a0 – as well as the GAO and at least one Congressional committee.<\/p>\n
As most TAH readers probably remember, \u201cCover Oregon\u201d was that \u201cwonderful\u201d healthcare insurance exchange developed by the state of Oregon.\u00a0 It received $303M in Federal grants.<\/p>\n
By mid-December 2013 just under $160M had been spent<\/a> to \u201cdevelop\u201d Cover Oregon\u2019s website to allow online application for health insurance.\u00a0 As of April 2014, that website had signed up precisely zero<\/i><\/b> online applicants (approximately 200,000 did manage to sign up via a paper application processes).<\/p>\n Oregon has since announced termination of that website, and that it will use that paragon of excellent function, HealthCare.gov, in the future as it’s healthcare exchange.\u00a0 Those who signed up previously will have to reapply next year.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll enjoy working their way through the Federal website.\u00a0 Or maybe they’ll submit a paper application to the Federal government instead – just like tens of thousands of those who tried to apply at HealthCare.gov ended up needing to do. \u00a0(smile)<\/p>\n It also appears that the folks who were running Cover Oregon may have misled Federal authorities to get that $303M in Federal funding.\u00a0 In such programs, funding is typically provided incrementally, with evidence of progress required to receive the next grant.\u00a0 Multiple sources indicate that Cover Oregon presented an unduly \u201crosy\u201d picture of progress to Federal authorities to continue receiving Federal grant funding.<\/p>\n