For those precious few of you following this blog - maybe a couple of friends - you'll notice it's been awhile since I wrote, and that this topic is almost passe at this point. But the server lost my blog in the Sentinel's site upgrade and this topic has been on my mind lately so I'm going to write about it anyway!
At this point the web site Healthcare.gov is going from a halting trip to a slow limp and now might be considered a painful walk. It's up and technically running but the users' trust level is still on the way-low side.
Many of us recognized the launch of Healthcare.gov as the classic web site launch fail. The business drove the deadline, the IT staff weren't ready and the two obviously weren't talking. Judging from comments and testimony there was the inevitable scope creep somewhere in there, too.
The enactment of the law and the confusion surrounding how it would affect people, and the failure of the web site launch created the perfect storm of mass confusion and disinformation all around. Republicans had their field day and citizens were confused. The saddest part for me, a communications professional, was the fact that there was no one of any authority separating the law and its policy from the web site and its launch. That is, until it was simply too late.
To be clear about the policy let's remember that every President since Reagan - and possibly back to Jimmy Carter - has wanted to change the health care system. There are three Republican Presidents on that list, each of whom tried to amend the existing health care system. Everyone knew it was broken and expensive, and each tried their hand at fixing it. President Obama has been the only one who's ever been able to change the health care law. It's time had finally come and the bad has come along with the good, but even the launch of the law and the details of what it contains has been confusing.
As for the site itself, every IT or e-marketing professional knew right away what had happened. The surprising thing is that it happened at all, especially given that President Obama is the most technically savvy President we've ever had. But, alas, he wasn't in charge of building a web site, secured for the masses. To understand some of the reasons behind the colossal failure of the design and launch you need to understand the procurement process of the government, and that is something of which I'm very familiar. Unfortunately.
To do work for the government on a contract basis requires a ream of paperwork, near-inside knowledge of what contracts are available, who will receive them and the scope of the work to be done. The requirements on the part of contractors is onerous. On the government side choosing the vendors is based largely on cost. Not always, mind you, but cost weighs very heavily. The adage, "you get what you pay for," didn't come out of nowhere. The Healthcare.gov project is case in point. According to the web site company's own testimony they tested for a user base of 50,000 users. That means 50,000 people hitting the 'refresh' button all at once. Anyone with common sense should have known that the launch of a web site which millions of people would be required to use the user base should be much, much higher than that!
Listening to some of the old-time Republicans ranting about hiring "Google scientists and Twitter gurus" to do the work just made me mad. They know very well why those people didn't get hired - they've been around so long it wouldn't surprise me if they were some of the original drafters of the rules surrounding procurement! Those 'gurus' also didn't get hired because they didn't offer themselves up as vendors either! Ironically they may not have qualified to BE contractors!
Healthcare.gov was the best example in our lifetime of an IT project gone wrong! It also speaks to my article about creating cross-functional teams, and how successful they can be. If only the business had worked with IT during the whole project the healthcare.gov web site might have been the one shining star in the swirl of the health care law requirements. Instead it became the sucker punch we all got hit with.
