Employee Benefit News for School, City and County Employers

Healthcare.gov looking for new CEO

Written by Valerie Ortiz | Dec 2, 2013 8:39:28 AM

Democrats from Capitol Hill have asked President Obama to begin looking for the next Jeff Zients, current CEO of the widely criticized Healthcare.gov website, according to Politico.  

Zients is already scheduled to exit his current role as the technological figurehead behind the federal government's online health insurance marketplace in January, as he will move on to become the National Economic Council Director. 

Amid his departure process came a letter from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), requesting the President quickly find a suitable replacement that can ensure the website's sustainability through 2015. 

"A project of this size and scope demands the sustained leadership and day-to-day management of a chief executive officer - someone whose sole responsibility would be an unrelenting focus on healthcare.gov," read the letter to Obama, signed by Shaheen and six other senators. "The position should report directly to you and should be empowered with the authority to ensure that healthcare.gov is fixed quickly, completely, and permanently."

The administration had recently issued an announcement of a self-imposed deadline of Nov. 30 for major glitches in the online system to be repaired. However, the administration has since acknowledged it will still not run as seamless as officials had hoped by that date.