Sebelius skips SHOP details

"Madame Secretary, how many employers are enrolling in the SHOP program today?" Joyce asked.

Sebelius said she didn't have the numbers but that they are in in the latest exchange enrollment report. The numbers are not in that report.

Joyce also asked for a timeline for SHOP development milestones.

"I don't know that off the top of my head," Sebelius said. She added she would get Joyce the information.

Also at the hearing:

• When asked whether HHS had disqualified vendors from future projects or fired Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services staffers as a result of the problems with the start of the public exchange plan open enrollment period, Sebelius said, "We changed day-to-day management immediately at CMS."
• Both Democrats and Republicans on the committee complained about the low level of growth in research spending in the Obama administration's fiscal year 2015 HHS budget proposal. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., noted that the United States is holding research spending flat as a percentage of income while China and South Korea are increasing research spending. "We cannot afford flat budgets that hamper innovation," Lowey said. Life sciences research can lead to advances that make people's lives better, and it's an important economic engine in its own right, Lowey said.

See also:

• California exchange pulls group site
• DC exchange users prefer platinum
• HHS officials face their customers