After five years at the helm, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius resigned on April 10.
Sebelius seemed to have weathered the maelstrom surrounding last October's botched rollout of the government’s health insurance exchanges, and with more than 7 million new people signed up for health insurance through the exchanges, the future looked good.
Last October, the launch of the Healthcare.gov website left people who wanted to sign up unable to do so, with the website apparently unable to handle the rush of applicants. Several Republicans called for Sebelius’ resignation then, and took the opportunity to criticize Obamacare, their name for the ACA.
When the House Committee on Energy and Commerce summoned Sebelius to Capitol Hill on Oct. 30 to answer questions about Healthcare.gov, she told the panel the website "has not lived up to the expectations of the American people and is not acceptable. We are committed to fixing these problems as soon as possible."
Asked who was responsible for the website breakdown, Sebelius responded, "Hold me accountable for the debacle. I'm responsible."
Soon after, government contractors who had worked on the site were fired.
By December, the White House was reporting that the website was much-improved -- “like night and day.”
“Root causes of the problems included hundreds of software bugs, inadequate hardware infrastructure and a general lack of system monitoring. The staff also identified weaknesses in how the site was being managed," Jeff Zients, management expert and advisor to CMS and HHS, said on Dec. 1.
President Barack Obama was scheduled to accept Sebelius' resignation during a Friday morning press conference and nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to take over at HHS.
Burwell will now face Congressional confirmation -- where, according to pundits, she is likely to see resistance from Republican senators who continue to oppose the Affordable Care Act.
Editor's note: This story first appeared in Healthcare IT News. It will be updated.
