Monday, August 11, 2014

Obamacare Schadenfreude: Oracle Sues Oregon

By way of Wombat-socho's "Live at Five: 08.11.14": Oracle sues Oregon over health insurance exchange

Of course, if you've been following Obamacare Schadenfreude, you know that my beloved early adult state of Oregon had the worst Obamacare website of any state; they failed to enroll anyone through the site alone, although they did manage to enroll some 400k by paper and some hybrid web thingy. The state, of course, has steadily blamed the debacle on their contractor for the project, and are withholding payment.  Oracle however, is fighting back in court, planning to argue that contradictory and shifting mandates made their job impossible:
The company says the project became a victim of bureaucratic infighting between two state agencies responsible for both the Cover Oregon website and a separate effort to modernize a complex state computer system.

It says state officials were unable to define requirements for the Cover Oregon system, an essential early step, and even went on a 60-day "retreat" to develop them but "returned empty-handed." State officials continued making requests for changes in the crucial final weeks before the website was supposed to launch in October 2013, the lawsuit alleges.

Then-executive director Rocky King was more concerned about the website's look than its function, the lawsuit alleges. It quotes from an email he sent in late September: "If the road is going to be bumpy, let me at least be driving a good looking car."
Damn that email; you can see why Lois Lerner, the EPA, the HHS and other sundry agencies find that a lot of emails go missing a critical times.

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