Nearly two months after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that her agency would create a new Chief Risk Officer (CRO) position to prevent a repeat of the Healthcare.gov debacle, the position is apparently still unfilled. HHS, however, has continued to solicit and award the very information technology (IT) contracts that the new CRO was intended to oversee.
On December 11, 2013, Sebelius announced a directive to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Marilyn Tavenner to create the Chief Risk Officer position and appoint someone to fill the role. However, CMS has been silent about the position so far, and the CMS organizational chart still does not include a CRO. Although Sebelius set no deadline for creating or filling the position, the secretary implied urgency by saying that the new CRO would be required to report back in 60 days with recommendations.
