Google engineer Michael Dickerson went on leave from the technology company to join the “Tech Surge” team to help the government fix the new federal insurance exchange website, HealthCare.gov.
After the government shutdown due to battling beliefs on the healthcare system, the government is now moving through the application of the new law.
As part of the new healthcare law implementation, the government created the website HealthCare.gov.
Julie Bataille, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, wrote on a blog, “As part of the 'Tech Surge,' we've added key personnel from the government and private sector, including expert engineers and technology managers. These dozens of people are strengthening and reinforcing the team we have working 24/7 to address the problems around HealthCare.gov.”
The government that through the assistance of technology experts from the big tech company Google, and software companies Oracle and Red Hat, they will be able to fix issues the website has encountered in its first month of operations.
Dickerson is currently working with the healthcare IT QSSI, a general contractor hired by the government to coordinate fixes for the site.
Greg Gershman, an ex-Presidential Innovation Fellow and Baltimore software engineer, also offered his help in creating a better user experience in the website. He is currently working with CGI federal, the site’s biggest contractor, “to improve HealthCare.gov's performance, and helping the development process be more agile so HealthCare.gov can release improvements more rapidly."
Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle said during the company’s shareholder’s meeting Friday that the database giant “thinks it is our responsibility as a technology provider in the technology industry to serve all of our customers, and the federal government is one of our customers, so we are helping them in every way we can.”
He added, “Most of us want to see our government operating efficiently and effectively, and it is incumbent upon us to help them do that.”
