Accenture Wins Renewed Contract to Continue Work on HealthCare.gov

After website glitches stole the spotlight during the first open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), CMS hired Accenture to fix HealthCare.gov. Now, the consulting firm has been awarded a 5-year, $563 million contract to continue working on the website.

In the second open enrollment, the process went much smoother. Accenture simplified the process for issuers to update plans and implemented tools to speed up resolution of consumer inquiries.

“We see this new contract as a strong vote of confidence in Accenture’s ability to continue assisting CMS in building and maintaining the site that has allowed millions of Americans to gain access to healthcare insurance,” David Moskovitz, chief executive of Accenture Federal Services, said in a statement.

After initial work to successfully close out the 2014 enrollment period, CMS chose to expand Accenture’s work to include enhancements and additional functionality of the federally facilitated Marketplace, the Small Business Health Options Program, and state-based exchange transitions.

“Accenture has been an essential member of our team as we focused on delivering a positive consumer experience through HealthCare.gov,” CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said. “We are pleased that Accenture will continue to support HealthCare.gov, as we work together to help millions of Americans sign up for quality, affordable health insurance.”

Thus far during the 2015 open enrollment period, 6.4 million people have signed up for healthcare coverage through HealthCare.gov. With the glitches on the website smoothed out, it seems the biggest challenge facing the ACA is lack of knowledge among consumers.

A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found in October that 9 in 10 uninsured Americans could not name November as the month during which open enrollment began. In addition, more than half of uninsured were still unaware of the financial assistance that is available to help low- and moderate-income individuals purchase insurance.