U.S. Prosecutors Investigate Oregon's Failed Health Insurance Exchange

Maeve Reston | Government Technology | May 23, 2014

Federal officials are seeking all reports, memos and email between Cover Oregon and CMS about the status of the website.

The U.S. attorney's office in Portland has issued subpoenas to Oregon's health insurance exchange as part of a grand jury investigation into the spectacular failure of the state's system, which was never able to enroll consumers online even though it spent more than $248 million in taxpayer money on the operation.

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents requested an expansive list of documents from the Oregon Health Authority, a state agency, and Oregon's state health insurance exchange, known as Cover Oregon. The investigation appears to be focused on the representations that Cover Oregon made about the status and functionality of its website to officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, the federal agency that parceled out the money to states to build exchanges under President Obama's Affordable Care Act...