Perhaps the most consistently cited factor contributing to the failure of healthcare.gov has been a lack of leadership. In a congressional hearing held only weeks after the site\u2019s initial failure, CGI Federal Vice President Cheryl Campbell was one of the first people involved in the project to directly place blame on the government, not its contractors. In a prepared statement, Campbell claimed that CMS “serves the important role of systems integrator or `quarterback’ on this project and is the ultimate responsible party for the end-to-end performance.” Subsequent testimony supported her statement and congress sanctioned CMS\u2019s failure to hire a qualified company to act as systems integrator. A designated systems integrator would have been responsible for making sure that the many different aspects of the website worked smoothly with one another. Because no one firm was specifically given this task, problems arose when it came time to put the pieces together.<\/p>\n
Some people attribute this critical oversight to a general lack of knowledge within government agencies when it comes to technology. They suggest that CMS may not have realized in time just how important a systems integrator was to the project\u2019s success. As its name suggests, CMS is primarily tasked with administering medical social services, not web development. It seems likely that they simply did not recognize their mistake until it was too late.<\/p>\n
CMS relinquished their role as systems integrator shortly after Campbell\u2019s testimony, and the website has continued to improve since then. Problems still exist, particularly surrounding the ways that insurers receive participant information. These problems serve to further highlight the importance of strong leadership, particularly when building a project that connects so many different businesses to potential consumers.<\/p>\n
Practice Makes Perfect<\/h2>\n
In the year since healthcare.gov first launched, hundreds of government officials have worked extremely hard to determine what went wrong and to fix the problems. For the most part, they have corrected their mistakes and they have done so quickly considering the vast scope of the site. While these decisive actions suggest that the government has learned from its failure, many of the processes that contributed to that failure remain in place. Government contracts are still limited to the specialized companies willing to pursue them. The valuable lessons healthcare.gov taught both CGI Federal and the Obama administration about the importance of clear direction and leadership will however hopefully encourage the American government to better manage similar projects in the future.<\/p>\n
At Hanei Marketing, we respect the sophistication involved in many of today\u2019s web ventures and honor that sophistication with targeted b2b marketing strategies that embrace the complex ways businesses connect with one another. Our tech team has the skills to build advanced systems and is driven by strong leaders who realize the importance of seamlessly integrated programming and pre-launch testing. If you are interested in learning more about the services we provide, we invite you to fill out our online contact form. After you have submitted the form, a representative from our firm will contact you shortly.<\/p>\n
Top image \u00a9GL Stock Images<\/p>\n
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