(Bloomberg) — Accenture, the second-largest technology-consulting company, will take over construction of HealthCare.gov.
The U.S. government awarded Accenture's Federal Services unit a one-year contract, with an initial payment of $45 million, the Dublin-based company said in a statement yesterday. Accenture will succeed Montreal-based CGI Group Inc., which drew criticism for the website's early stumbles.
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While the site has improved, HealthCare.gov's first two months were marred by delays, error messages and garbled data that bogged down insurance sign-ups in the 36 U.S. states served by the federal system. Accenture led construction of California's better-performing state exchange.
"Accenture will bring deep health-care industry insight as well as proven experience building large-scale, public-facing websites to continue improving healthcare.gov," David Moskovitz, chief executive officer at Accenture Federal Services, said in the statement.
The government-run insurance exchanges offer health plans and access to subsidies created by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. CGI's role in managing healthcare.gov had been reduced following the botched rollout, with a unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc. brought in to oversee emergency repairs. Most Americans have until March 31 to select a health plan for 2014 coverage.
