Sebelius fields accusations, questions on HealthCare.gov in testimony

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who's become the face of the HealthCare.gov controversy, blamed contractors for HealthCare.gov's launch as she fielded questions and accusations from Congress today.

"CMS has a track record of successfully overseeing the many contractors our programs depend on to function. Unfortunately, a subset of those contracts for HealthCare.gov have not met expectations," Sebelius told the House Energy and Commerce Committee today.

Yesterday, Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, was the first to testify before Congress--although members barely let her get a word in edgewise, according to the National Journal. She did apologize for the fact that HealthCare.gov has not worked as it should.

Although President Obama tapped one of his economic advisers and communications giant Verizon to start fixing the troubled site, the site isn't trouble-free yet. On Oct. 27, parts of the site were down due to a Verizon Terremark data center crash, and HHS scrambled to get it fixed quickly.

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