Obama to Discuss Continuing Health Care Computer Issues
By:   //  Health & Science, News Briefs

by Derek Dowell

It’s no secret that the technical side of the rollout of President Obama’s landmark health care legislation has been, to put it kindly, a disaster. In an effort to seize control of the issue, the president plans to address the nation on the topic from the Rose Garden. This will be his first long-form attempt to explain the problems enrollees are encountering with computer registration and the steps his administration is taking to implement fixes.

Technical glitches associated with the new health care computer system are well-documented, ranging from frozen screens to system crashes to abnormally long waits. Obama is expected to offer a series of fixes, including increased staffing at call centers, which will allow people to register for insurance by phone. The Department of Health and Human Services also plans to bring in private sector tech experts to help track down and eliminate bugs. According to an HHS memo, it is putting in place “tools and processes to aggressively monitor and identify parts of Healthcare.gov where individuals are encountering errors or having difficulty using the site, so we can prioritize and fix them.”

The administration plans to release enrollment figures in mid-November and certainly hopes to have the system running smoother by then.

(Image: Flickr | Damon Sacks)

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