October 24, 2013

Washington — The Obama administration launched its troubled health care insurance website after only a minimum of crucial system-wide testing, despite contractors warning officials repeatedly about performance risks, witnesses told a congressional panel Thursday.

At a House oversight committee hearing, contractors said the administration did not conduct end-to-end testing of the system’s technology until just two weeks before it opened to consumers on Oct. 1. They also blamed the administration for a last-minute design change that has been identified as a flaw responsible for leading millions of visitors into system bottlenecks.

Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency implementing the online marketplace, acknowledged the contractors’ testimony.