Contract Dispute Essay

Total Length: 593 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 2

Page 1 of 2

Government Contracting class.

GAO case study: Contract dispute

One of the most recent government debacles of 2013-2014 was that of the healthcare.gov crisis. Healthcare.gov, the Internet exchange on which people could buy healthcare plans on the open market, was largely inoperable for the first months of its existence. The fact that the website was effectively the result of a failed government contract is often forgotten, due to the focus on the policy debate swirling around the requirement that all American citizens are ensured. There was later an investigation into the contract between the government and the firm (CMS) charged with designing the website. "To be expedient, CMS issued task orders to develop the federally facilitated marketplace (FFM) and federal data services hub (data hub) systems when key technical requirements were unknown, including the number and composition of states to be supported and, importantly, the number of potential enrollees. CMS used cost-reimbursement contracts, which created additional risk because CMS is required to pay the contractor's allowable costs regardless of whether the system is completed" ("Ineffective planning," 2014).


The result was that costs spiraled out of control as well as the timeframe of the project. Without an incentive to contain costs given the requirement that all the contractors' allowable costs be covered, subcontractors began to take a lackadaisical attitude towards deadlines. This was deadly for the website project, given the looming required date by which all Americans had to have purchased some form of health insurance, if they had not done so previously. Over the course of the project, "CMS incurred significant cost increases, schedule slips, and delayed system functionality for the FFM and data hub systems due primarily to changing requirements that were exacerbated by oversight gaps…New requirements and changing CMS decisions also led to….....

Show More ⇣


     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Contract Dispute" (2014, August 22) Retrieved May 16, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/contract-dispute-191271

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Contract Dispute" 22 August 2014. Web.16 May. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/contract-dispute-191271>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Contract Dispute", 22 August 2014, Accessed.16 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/contract-dispute-191271