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 CGI Federal, a subsidiary of CGI Group, built the website,
HealthCare.gov, which was plagued by error messages and slow speeds
for weeks after the launch. The glitches created a political crisis
for President Barack Obama, threatening the roll-out of his
signature healthcare law and emboldening Republican foes to call for
its repeal.
"As CMS moves forward in our efforts to help consumers access
quality, affordable health coverage, we have selected Accenture to
become the lead contractor for the HealthCare.gov portal and to
prepare for next year's open enrollment period," the agency said in
a statement.
CGI Federal said on Friday that its contract, which was originally
awarded in 2011 and is scheduled to end February 28, would not be
renewed.
Accenture said the contract was worth $45 million for the initial
phase of the project, and the Washington Post reported that the
final value of the one-year contract would be about $90 million.
"Accenture will bring deep healthcare industry insight as well as
proven experience building large-scale, public-facing websites to
continue improving HealthCare.gov," David Moskovitz, chief executive
of Accenture Federal Services, said in a statement.
Obama has said the fiasco with the website has made him want to
overhaul the way the federal government buys technology services.
Critics say the system favors large, established contractors such as
CGI.
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Although the site is vastly improved, technical glitches continue to
bedevil enrollment. The improvements allowed more than 1.1 million
people to shop for and enroll in insurance on HealthCare.gov by the
end of 2013, far short of original hopes.
The deadline for signing up for 2014 health insurance under the
Affordable Care Act is March 31, meaning Accenture will take over at
a time when the government needs the site to handle what it hopes
will be a surge of last-minute sign-ups.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; writing
by Eric Beech; editing by Dan Grebler and Steve Orlofsky)
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