British Company Is Awarded Contract to Administer Health Rollout

[cali]

Racing to meet an October deadline, Obama administration officials said Thursday that they had awarded a contract worth as much as $1.2 billion to a British company to help them sift applications for health insurance and tax credits under the new health care law.

The company, Serco, has extensive experience as a government contractor with the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, and it also manages air traffic control towers in 11 states and reviews visa applications for the State Department. But it has little experience with the Department of Health and Human Services or the insurance marketplaces, known as exchanges, where individuals and small businesses are supposed to be able to shop for insurance.

Serco will help the Obama administration and states determine who is eligible for insurance subsidies, in the form of tax credits, and who might qualify for Medicaid. Tasks include “intake, routing, review and troubleshooting of applications,” according to the contract.

<snip, snip, lots of snipping>

Even as the Defense Department and other agencies face across-the-board budget cuts, the health law has been a boon to contractors. It would be virtually impossible for the administration to carry out the law without contractors to run a call center, a “data services hub” and a public-relations campaign.

The Government Accountability Office found that the administration had spent $394 million on contracts to establish federal insurance exchanges. More than three-fourths of the money went to 10 companies. They include CGI Federal, a subsidiary of a Canadian company, the CGI Group ($88 million); Quality Software Services Inc. ($55 million); and Booz Allen Hamilton ($38 million).

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/health/british-company-is-awarded-contract-to-administer-health-rollout.html?hp&_r=1&

[cali]

1. a little about the Serco Group

<snip>

Controversies

Serco has seen a large amount of criticism involving its private prisons and detention centres. In particular, the Union of Christmas Island Workers has said about the Christmas Island detention centre, which hosts many refugees as well as 1,000 children who have tried to immigrate into Australia, "Serco's failure to perform is huge."[64] Serco has been accused of beating prisoners, not adequately maintaining their physical and mental health, and allowing suicide and self-harm incidents to increase over time. Australian ombudsman Allan Asher said to the Australian radio show AM, "In the first week of June when I visited Christmas Island, more than 30 incidents of self harm by detainees held there were reported."[64] Serco, in a company memo leaked to The Australian, blamed the detainees for "creating a culture of self harm," and using it as a "bargaining tool."[64] Serco has been fined for breaches of contract every month it has managed detention centres in Australia, leading to a total of $4 million in fines in early 2011. Also, Serco's Christmas Island detention center was reported by its own former manager to be "typically 15 staff members short every day."[64]

Serco has also gained criticism for its inefficiency in its pathology labs. Its laboratories in St Thomas' Hospital saw an increase in the number of clinical incidents, such as patients getting inappropriate blood when their medical history was not flagged by the system or patients' kidney damage results being calculated incorrectly.[65] A Serco employee later revealed that the company had given false reports to the National Health Service 252 times over its medical services in Cornwall.[66]

<snip>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serco_Group

[cali]

18. funny how folks want to ignore this.

[HiPointDem]

2. Serco! The everything company, formerly RCA UK! They also do charter schools!

And everything in-between! Like prisons, transportation, air traffic control, and it just goes on & on!! All based on those juicy government dollars!

UK company from US parent run by a South AfricaN!

This is the future of the global mega-corporation!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serco_Group

[cali]

3. yes, indeedy. like the term "global mega corporation"

What's the U.S. parent of the Serco Group?

[HiPointDem]

4. Formerly RCA, Radio Corporation of America. Now independent. and rca used to be part of GE/

westinghouse.

[ananda]

12. This is very disturbing!

All this corporate privatization stuff.

Globalization sucks.

[cali]

5. kick

I think this is quite interesting.

[WinkyDink]

6. You know, aside from its noted failures, Serco is......drumroll......NOT A U.S. COMPANY.

WTH IS OBAMA THINKING AND DOING WITH THIS????????????

[HipChick]

10. The way goverment contracts work..

There are multiple bids by different companies submitted...they may be headquarted in UK, but most companies have a seperate Federal division that deal with govt contracts, almost always it is a seperate entity within the corporation, and stateside based

[cali]

28. Is the only consideration the lowest bid?

[dgibby]

7. Not the Onion

and not funny, either. Wonder why Booz Allen Hamilton is in the mix. Gathering info, maybe? It's bad enough when US companies are off shoring, but POTUS? Jeebus!

[cali]

8. No, not the Onion. Yeah, I wonder what Booz Allen's role is too

and you can bet that Serco will be hiring lots of non-U.S. folks to man those phones! Off shoring the ACA. What a concept!

[cali]

9. Is this significant? I think it is.

"Was there no U.S. company that could handle this. Did the contract ensure that U.S. workers will get any percentage of the jobs generated? Was the hiring process included in the contract?

[Fumesucker]

11. Downing Street is helping keep a thumb on Assange

What are friends for but to do for each other?

[dgibby]

20. I think we paid that debt

when we didn't throw BP out.

[Cleita]

13. There go many more jobs outsourced to a foreign nation.

We have plenty of experienced people to process stuff like that right here. What about the companies who handle Medicare claims? I don't know if I like this.

[KoKo]

14. Recommend....ACA is starting to look like a boondoggle for Private Contractors...

How will Patient Privacy and Information Storage be handled. Article says that information will be destroyed after a certain amount of time. But, why should we believe that. If this company handles Prisons and Air Traffic Control Towers...what does it know about Medical Issues and Privacy of that information?

This does not sound good at all.

[area51]

16. What's known as the ACA

was always meant to be a boon to private companies; the for-profit, lightly regulated, insurance companies. Why should they care about people's health, or people's privacy, when there's money to be made.

[cali]

19. certainly a boon for one of the big outsourcing companies.

[KoKo]

15. Kick...for more exposure..

[cali]

17. Buy Serco stock: "outsourcing will continue"

written prior to the announcement of this huge contract. From the Telegraph:

<snip>



Jittery investors breathed a sigh of relief after Friday’s trading update from outsourcing group Serco. Management confirmed that everything is on track for the full year, despite headwinds in the US.

Serco is an outsourcing group that operates in the justice, immigration, health, transportation, facilities management and business process outsourcing markets. Last year, 56pc of revenues were generated in the UK and 14pc in the US.

<snip>

Once source of concern for investors has been the US. Last year revenue at the unit slumped by 13pc. Wranglings over the US budget have hit the group hard. While the talks are still going on, it appears that the situation is not deteriorating further.

<snip>

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/questor/10153311/Questor-share-tip-Buy-Serco-as-outsourcing-will-continue.html

[KoKo]

21. I'm rushing to put it in my Portfolio Stock for Retirement ....RIGHT NOW~

Since I can't make money giving my Banks to trust it. They give me 1% or less...so I gotta "Go with the FLOW for the Obama Years!"

Hey PILE IN!

[malokvale77]

22. kick

[Harmony Blue]

23. I have a bad feeling about this...

[Brigid]

25. May I join you behind that couch?

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Fraud probe into G4S and Serco 'tens of millions' overcharging - including bills for dead offenders

The Justice Secretary will ask the Serious Fraud Office to investigate the Government's contract with security giant G4S after auditors claimed that the company, alongside a second, Serco, had overcharged the Government by "tens of millions of pounds".

Chris Grayling told MPs that G4S has refused to take part in an additional audit to rule out foul play, while Serco has agreed.

Mr Grayling said an initial audit, launched when the billing issues were disclosed in May, found that the Government had been charged in cases when Serco and G4S were not providing electronic tagging - and in a small number of cases when the offender was known to have died.

He said: “The billing practices in question were clearly unacceptable and the Government will take all necessary steps to secure a refund for the taxpayer.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/fraud-probe-into-g4s-and-serco-tens-of-millions-overcharging--including-bills-for-dead-offenders-8703245.html

Just so you guys know how trustworthy Serco is ...

[cali]

26. hey Muriel, thanks for that

also, my understanding about Serco is they have some very bad practices in operating their prisons and their detention center, and that they're the king of outsourcing

[magellan]

27. Reading the info in this thread has made me physically sick. n/t

[cali]

29. that's understandable. it's pretty disturbing even if

the contract had to go to the lowest bidder.

[magellan]

32. Cali, you see me!

I'm so glad. I thought you might have me on ignore. (If you did I no doubt deserved it.) Thank you for the yeoman's work you do to keep us engaged and informed...even when the info is as unpalatable as this is.

[cali]

34. no, no, no. I most assuredly do not have you on ignore and I'm quite sure I never have

thanks for the kind words.

[Catherina]

30. I'm speechless. n/t

[BOG PERSON]

31. british people get the NHS and we get this crappy shit

[suffragette]

33. "Private contractor fiddled data when reporting to NHS, says watchdog"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/07/private-contractor-data-nhs-watchdog

Serco, the leading private contractor of government services, fiddled its data when reporting to the NHS on targets it had failed to meet, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

The independent watchdog's investigation into Serco's out-of-hours GP service in Cornwall, published on Thursday, comes after the Guardian revealed last May that whistleblowers had concerns that the privatised service was regularly so short-staffed as to be unsafe and that its performance data was being manipulated.

~~~

The PCT is now checking the Serco audit, which only covered the first six months of 2012, when the company had already been told it was under scrutiny. The trust said it would ensure all the NAO recommendations were built into its monitoring of the contract.

Staff have told the health regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), that the data manipulation went back four years or more and was much worse before 2012.

[cali]

35. What a great corporate addition to the ACA!

[suffragette]

36. Apparently they were also in charge of oversight for KBR, Fluor & Dyncorp starting 2008

http://www.truth-out.org/archive/item/78498:dod-contracts-out-contractor-oversight


Yeah, that went well. How much did those contractors funnel away?


And I wonder what kind of oversight they'll have, especially with all the sensitive info in applications to do with health insurance.

Thanks for posting this Cali, even as depressing as this news is.