Info Tech
U.S. to part with contractor CGI for Obamacare website
WASHINGTON – The U.S. government will part ways next month with contractor CGI Federal over the troubled Obamacare enrollment website, HealthCare.gov, which failed to work when it launched in October for millions of Americans shopping for insurance, the company said on Friday.
HealthCare.gov struggled with error messages and slow speeds for weeks after its October 1 launch, creating a political crisis for President Barack Obama, threatening the roll-out of his signature healthcare law and emboldening its foes among Republican lawmakers to call for its repeal.
CGI Federal, a subsidiary of CGI Group, built the website.
Its contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency responsible for the roll out of the Affordable Care Act, was originally awarded in 2011 and is scheduled to end February 28.
CMS would not confirm or deny CGI’s departure. “We are working with our contract partners to make a mutually agreed upon transition to ensure that HealthCare.gov continues to operate smoothly for consumers,” a CMS spokeswoman said.
Obama has said the fiasco with HealthCare.gov has made him want to overhaul the way the federal government buys technology services. Critics say the system favors large, established contractors such as CGI.
“At the end of the day, you have a company here that turned in subpar and visibly high-profile work. I think that that’s a fireable offense,” said Clay Johnson, chief executive officer of the Department of Better Technology, and former Presidential Innovation Fellow who has pushed for procurement reforms.
But the government appears poised to replace CGI with another large contractor. The Washington Post, which first broke the news, reported that Accenture will get a year-long contract for the website worth about $90 million.
The government’s dissatisfaction over the website’s early crashes, as well as aspects of the site that still do not work, prompted the switch, the Post reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
In an emailed statement, an Accenture spokesman said, “We are in discussions with clients and prospective clients all the time – but it is not appropriate to discuss new business opportunities we may or may not be pursuing.”
Johnson called the news “disappointing” and pointed to examples of poorly managed Accenture contracts highlighted by the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.
For example, the company was publicly faulted by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers) for costly delays and other problems during a major IT overhaul, Johnson noted.
“We’ll see how well they do, but Accenture doesn’t have a strong reputation of doing this stuff successfully,” Johnson said.
CASEWORKER SYSTEM FOR TRICKY CASES
Officials from the administration and CGI had assured Congress over the summer that HealthCare.gov would open on time and work as intended.
At a September 10 hearing, CGI vice president Cheryl Campbell testified that the company “is confident that it will deliver the functionality that CMS has directed to enable qualified individuals to begin enrolling in coverage when the initial enrollment period begins on October 1.”
Instead, the site failed to load, returned countless error messages, and generally thwarted the attempts of millions of users to create accounts, shop for coverage or enroll.
The administration eventually acknowledged that the fault lay in hundreds of coding errors in the software CGI wrote, and the White House brought in trusted Obama aide Jeffrey Zients to fix the site by the end of November.
The improvements allowed more than 1.1 million people to shop for and enroll in insurance on HealthCare.gov by the end of 2013, far short of original hopes for early enrollment.
Although the site is vastly improved, technical glitches continue to bedevil enrollment. There are about 13,000 people who are now in a “caseworker system” to try to resolve particularly thorny technical issues, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
The website still lacks several “back end” features, such as a payment system for insurance companies.
The deadline for signing up for 2014 health insurance under the Affordable Care Act is March 31, meaning the new contractor will take over at a time when the government needs the site to handle what it hopes will be a surge of last-minute sign-ups.
“With only limited days to enroll, the government is rolling the dice, and the new vendor could be a savior or a bust if new problems arise,” said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight.
But Peter Neupert, an operating partner with Health Evolution Partners, a private equity firm that invests in health companies, said he did not think the switch in contractors likely would affect the website, which is now overseen by Kurt DelBene, a former Microsoft executive.
“This appears to be about getting a new, hopefully better, team for the next few cycles of iteration,” Neupert said, noting he suspects DelBene will have a “transition plan” to manage the change.
‘A VERY, VERY GOOD THING’
This is at least the second contract switch for HealthCare.gov. In November, CMS said it would not renew its contract with Verizon Communication Inc’s Terremark unit for computer servers hosting the troubled website and instead award a contract for that work to Hewlett-Packard Co.
Terremark’s contract ends on March 30, the day before the sign-up deadline. The Terremark servers suffered at least one outage last fall that lasted for hours, making the website inaccessible.
Despite the bad publicity from the website woes, two analysts said they did not expect CGI to take a significant hit from the end of the HealthCare.gov contract.
“You could say what they’re losing in effect is this $90 million, 12-month contract, which in the context of a $10 billion revenue company is nothing,” said one of the analysts, who declined to be quoted by name.
U.S.-listed shares of CGI Group closed at $31.58, down 2.9 percent.
The second analyst said CGI might be better off to not be associated with the highly politicized project. “We will never hear CGI’s name associated with Obamacare, which, frankly, is a very, very good thing,” the analyst said.
– REUTERS
In efforts at spicing up the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, the management of ITREALMS Media has partnered with E-waste Producer Responsibility Organization of Nigeria (EPRON) membership organisations for a day-long collection scheme of small electronic waste on Friday, December 15, 2023.
The EPRON members aligning their partnership with 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue are EL-AS Tech Enterprises Limited and WEEE Eco-Friendly.
ITREALMS’ day-long collection scheme is part of the commemoration of 2023 international E-Waste Day (IEWD) within the ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue with the theme “You Can Recycle Anything with a plug, battery or cable” at Welcome Centre Hotels, International Airport Road, Lagos.
Revealing this collaboration, the Group Executive Editor, ITREALMS Media, the organisers of the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, Sir. Remmy Nweke, urged mobile device enthusiasts to come along with their devices that have reached their end-of-life to the venue for proper disposition by professionals who would also be on grounds to address some topical issues.
The collection of small electronic wastes especially mobile phones and like-devices, would be carried out by EPRON member organisation, EL-AS Tech Enterprises Limited as facilitated by ITREALMS Media group as part of this year’s ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue on Friday, December 15, he added.
He disclosed that the exercise would commence at Welcome Centre Hotel by 9am till close of work hours the same day.
Nweke pointed out that the collection of small e-waste items would include mobile phones, pointers mouse, earpieces, rechargeable torches, phone chargers, to name a few.
Further, he said, that this initiative has become time-serving because some people may have missed any other opportunity before now for the year-long campaign, hence this awareness on e-Waste has to be continuous, “ITREALMS came up with this scheme.”
Nweke beckoned on Nigerians, especially mobile phone users, to leverage the opportunity in disposing of their mobile devices they no longer use, of course in exchange for a voucher or gift item.
In her reaction to this year’s day-long small waste collection, EPRON Executive Secretary, Mrs. Ibukun Faluyi, described the initiative as commendable, expressing confidence it would intensify the collection of end-of-life devices for proper disposition.
Mrs. Faluyi, also urged Nigerians to take advantage of this day-long collection of small wastes courtesy of ITREALMS Media.
Recalling for instance that in October 2022, EPRON had partnered SLOT alongside some UN agencies for collection of small e-waste items in Lagos, including the United Nations Information Centres (UNIC), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Labour Organisation (ILO), Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA).
This is even as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Aminu Maida and Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Aliyu Jauro, would both lead speakers at the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue slated for this Friday, December 15, in Lagos.
Today, September 12, the tech corporation Apple will introduce the iPhone 15, their newest iPhone model.
According to a Forbes story, this model, which will be introduced at the company’s “Wanderlust” event in Cupertino, California, will be available in four variations: the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Here are five things you should know about the new iPhone 15 model.
1. The new model is made of titaniu, not stainless steel as some other Apple smartphone models, Senior research analyst at DIGITIMES, Luke Lin reports.
2. The Pro Max model will feature double the optical zoom on the iPhone 14 as it comes with a newly-introduced ‘periscope lens upgrade, performing 5-6x optical zoom.’
3. The Pro models will carry an A17 bionic chip expected to make it perform faster.
4. The iPhone 15 model will feature a USB-C charging port, the same port featured on some Android phone models.
5. Due to its titanium shell, the new model is anticipated to be more expensive to purchase. The following is the speculated price list, as reported by Forbes:
The iPhone 15 starts at $799, the iPhone 15 Plus at $899, the iPhone 15 Pro at $1,099 ($100 increase), and the iPhone 15 Pro Max at $1,299 ($200 increase).
In an effort to reduce the exorbitant cost of Premium Motor Spirit, better known as petrol, the Infrastructure Bank Plc announced its collaboration with FEMADEC Group on Monday to offer 500 buses powered by autogas (Compressed Natural Gas).
Partners in the agreement claimed that the project was created to provide citizens with dependable, affordable, and environmentally friendly travel options, taking into account the negative effects of the nationwide increase in PMS costs.
Under Decree No. 51 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1992 Constitution, the Infrastructure Bank, originally known as the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria Plc, was founded in 1992 to promote the quick development of infrastructure throughout the nation.
In a statement issued in Abuja on its partnership with FEMADEC, the bank said, “The preliminary offer extended by TIB lays a solid foundation for the expansion of FEMADEC Group’s CNG bus fleet.
“With plans to introduce 500 CNG buses within the next five years, commencing with an initial batch of 50 buses in the forthcoming year, this proposal stands poised to instigate significant change.
“The acceptance of this proposition by FEMADEC Group, notably championed by Fola Akinnola, the Group Chief Executive Officer, is a testament to their zeal and dedication to this alliance.”
The bank described the partnership as a “pivotal endeavour that is primed to redefine Nigeria’s public transportation landscape, offering dependable, cost-effective, and ecologically conscious travel alternatives for citizens, while harmonising with the nation’s broader sustainability ambitions.”
“This partnership represents a remarkable stride towards a more ecologically aware future for Nigeria’s transportation sector, highlighting the shared commitment of both TIB and FEMADEC Group to sustainable advancement and progress.”
It said FEMADEC Group’s strides in operating Compressed Natural Gas buses, including the existing fleet of 20 CNG buses under LAMATA, underscored their unwavering dedication to ecologically sound solutions, a commitment predating the fuel subsidy removal.
“Their leadership within the CNG value chain is undeniable, and the new alliance with TIB underscores their foresight.
“This partnership seamlessly aligns with TIB’s sustainability objectives, echoing their resolute endorsement of the government’s net-zero and climate change agenda.
“The bank’s aspiration to champion Nigeria’s infrastructure progress is evident in its endorsement of pivotal initiatives like this, yielding expansive positive impacts on both the environment and society,” the bank stated.
The bank added that it would continue to make a significant contribution to the country’s growth as a leading financial institution committed to advancing effective and long-lasting infrastructure projects.
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