Government Investigation Finds Massive Mismanagement Wasted Millions in Botched Healthcare.gov Rollout

The Government Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is set to release a damning report on the rollout of Healthcare.gov.

The GAO report is due out on Thursday. According to the AP, the GAO investigation found that Healthcare.gov’s rollout was mismanaged from stem to stern.

Investigators found that the administration kept changing the contractors’ marching orders for the HealthCare.gov website, creating widespread confusion and leading to tens of millions of dollars in additional costs. Changes were ordered in seemingly willy-nilly fashion, including 40 times when government officials did not have the initial authority to incur additional costs.

The report faults the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services — for ineffective oversight. The Medicare agency, known as CMS, was designated to administer Obama’s health care law.

The GAO finds that CMS failed even to give the site’s contractors a coherent plan to build it.

To date, no one has been fired for the administration’s towering mismanagement of Healthcare.gov. Then HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has departed the administration, but CMS chief Marilyn Tavenner remains in the job.