Former Microsoft Exec Tasked with Healthcare.Gov Cleanup

Though performance of the federal online health insurance marketplace, Healthcare.Gov, has improved in recent weeks, there is still clearly a lot of work to be done.

That was the tenor of today's announcement, via blog post, by Health and Human Services director Kathleen Sebelius, announcing that former Microsoft executive Kurt DelBene as a senior advisor tasked with overseeing the site.

Sebelius wrote:

The President and I believe strongly in having one person, with strong experience and expertise in management and execution, who is thinking 24/7 about HealthCare.gov. … Kurt will execute the plan in place, so that we can ensure the site’s performance is strong through the close of open enrollment on March 31, 2014. This will include a focus on increasing system stability, redundancy and capacity, and building on improvements to the user interface, while continuing to prioritize security and privacy issues in line with industry best practices.

DelBene last served as president of Microsoft's Office Division. Sebelius praised his "proven expertise in heading large, complex technology teams and in product development" as key to his appointment.

Earlier this week, the Federal Insurance Office released a long-awaited report detailing potential modernization opportunities for U.S. insurance regulation. Check out why the federal government is (probably) not taking over insurance regulation.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio