Via WaPo:
Some federal officials knew the online small business insurance marketplace would not be ready for its Oct. 1 launch nearly six weeks before the administration announced its initial delay, according to e-mails released Friday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
In a series of e-mails from July 25 and Aug. 13, officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and HealthCare.gov’s main contractor, CGI Federal, sparred over whether the Small Business Health Options Program, known as the SHOP exchange, would be ready to go on Oct. 1.
Health and Human Services announced on Sept. 26 the exchange would be delayed for a month; the day before Thanksgiving the agency said they would not offer online enrollment for small businesses until November 2014.
CMS officials began sounding the alarm about the program’s readiness in late July, according to the e-mails, and in an exchange on Aug. 13, CGI’s vice president of consulting Mark Calem wrote to them about a “planned rollout schedule for SHOP” in which the “employee portal goes live” on Nov. 15.
In response CMS deputy chief information officer Henry Chao — who frequently questioned the contractor’s performance in the months leading up to the launch — wrote, “Can we sign this with blood?”