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The HealthCare.gov project

  • Teaching Case
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Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases

Abstract

This case describes the development of the HealthCare.gov website front-end, systems and databases supporting the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. In late October 2013, US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner appear before a Congressional subcommittee to apologize about system glitches. The case gives students an opportunity to consider project risks that affected this huge systems development effort, and to consider how to ensure that millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans would be able to sign up for affordable health insurance.

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References

  • GAO-13-601 (2013). Status of CMS Efforts to Establish Federally Facilitated Health Insurance Exchanges: U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2.

  • Gerencher, K. (2013). Get ready to enroll in exchanges. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 18 August: A3.

  • Gogan, JL, Fedorowicz, J and Rao, A. (1999). Assessing Risks in Two Projects: A strategic opportunity and a necessary evil, Communications of the Association for Information Systems 1(15).

  • Johnson, A. (2013). What you need to know about the Affordable Care Act. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 29 September: A1.

  • King N., Jr. and Prang, A. (2013). More voters turn on Obama. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 31 October.

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  • Mclean, B. (2013). Accounting for Obamacare: Inside the company that built HealthCare.gov. Vanity Fair, 22 December.

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  • Radnofsky, L. (2013). How will the subsidies work? The Wall Street Journal, Online 30 August.

  • Radnofsky, L. and Weaver, C. (2013). Balky exchange set to get tech help. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 21 October: A6.

  • Schatz, A. (2013). Shutdown unlikely to curb Affordable Care Act funds. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 25 September: A4.

  • Schatz, A. (2013). Groups get $67 million to promote health exchanges. The Wall Street Journal, Online 15 August.

  • United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce (2013). Oral testimony on Affordable Care Act implementation, 30 October, Washington DC: Government Publishing Office (statement of Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)) [www document] http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2013/10/t20131030.html.

  • United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce (2013). Oral testimony on Affordable Care Act implementation, 30 October, Washington DC: Government Publishing Office (statement of Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)) [www document] http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2013/10/t20131030.html.

  • United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means (2013). Hearing on Affordable Care Act implementation, 29 October, Washington DC: Government Publishing Office (statement of Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)) [www document] http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2013/10/t20131029.html.

  • United States Senate Committee on Finance (2013). Health insurance exchanges: Progress report, 14 February, Washington DC: Government Publishing Office (statement of Gary Cohen, JD, Deputy Administrator and Director, Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) [www document] http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2013/02/t20130214.html#.

  • Weaver, C., Martin, T.W. and Radnofsky, L. (2013). Capital digs in for long haul: Health-law debut beset by tech woes as consumers clog exchange websites. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 2 October: A1.

  • Weaver, C., Ovide, S. and Radnofsky, L. (2013). Software and design defects cripple health-care website. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 7 October: A1.

  • Weaver, C. and Radnofsky, L. (2013). Health site stymied by lack of direction. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 28 October: A1.

  • Weaver, C. and Radnofsky, L. (2013). Health exchange’s flaws pinpointed. The Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition 11 October: A4.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Ashok Rao, who provided invaluable insights as co-author of the first version of this case, which received a Best Case award from the Project Management Institute when presented at the Northeast Decision Support Systems Conference in March 2015. Rao opted out of the current version of the case. Janis Gogan acknowledges Bentley University, which provided a summer research grant for this case study.

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Correspondence to Janis L Gogan.

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This case was prepared based on publicly available sources, to support class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of the situation. All characters and events are based on substantiated facts. Copyright 2016, Janis Gogan, Elizabeth Davidson, and Jeffrey Proudfoot.

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Gogan, J., Davidson, E. & Proudfoot, J. The HealthCare.gov project. J Info Technol Teach Cases 6, 99–110 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/jittc.2016.2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jittc.2016.2

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