Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will testify Tuesday morning before the House Ways and Means Committee about the administration’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
A livestream of the hearing will be available at C-SPAN when the hearing begins at 10:00am ET.
According to the committee’s initial announcement of the hearing, it is expected to focus on the following:
This hearing will examine the status of efforts by CMS, HHS and the Obama Administration to identify the problems plaguing the launch of the Exchanges and the specific plans to fix the design flaws. The hearing will seek answers to why the Exchanges are not working, whether the Exchanges will be ready to fulfill all of their required functions and what steps are being taken to ensure that CMS and HHS will be able to accurately verify subsidy eligibility – prior to the distribution of premium tax credits and cost sharing subsidies.In announcing the hearing, Chairman Camp stated, “After spending over $600 million, the American people want answers to some very basic questions about the launch of ObamaCare. Why doesn’t the website work? Why were the American people told everything would be ready, when it was clear that was not the case? How deep are the problems and how long will it take to get those problems fixed? And most importantly, if people can’t navigate such a dysfunctional and overly complex system, is it fair for the IRS to impose tax penalties?”
In a lengthy hearing last week before the House Energy and Commerce committee, lawmakers heard from four of the numerous contractors involved in either the development of or processes associated with healthcare.gov. Several of those contractors pointed blame at CMS for some of the key issues and decisions that contributed to the plagued rollout of the website.
On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee at 9:00am ET.
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