Will the government be able to implement Obamacare smoothly? An impossible endeavor" writes a reader who describes himself as 83 years young married to a beautiful lady for 65 years with a 54-year career in technology starting with punch cards in the Navy retired from three major corporations at the director level last position was with EDS working on Y2K project." He goes on to list some of the things he believes need to be done which I quote with his permission. I dont know enough about this to make a judgment myself but I have noticed over the years that the federal government has had problems procuring information technology.
RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS
Technical
o Programmers
Depending on what languages are being used will require that skill setI bet you a lot of that code is written in COBOL and the last time I have seen that skill set was when we worked on Y2K and we had to bring them out of retirement.
o System Analyst
Strong ability to work with subject matter specialist to develop systems requirements and document for the programmers.
o Technical and Subject Matter Specialists
Writers to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the end users (How many will that be???) and SOPs for operations.
Computerso Will we need various types of computer equipment in order to test and migrate to production? Problem is we must likely dont have that computer capacity in order to test followed by migration to production
o Mainframes Desktops and other devices that I am unaware of
o Will vendors have to get involved with hardware/software packages etc?
o LANs
Interfaces (based on the GAO report-as follows)o IRS o HHS o TREASURY o INSURANCE COMPANIES o SSA o STATE EXCHANGES o CORPORATIONS o SMALL BUSINESS o MEDICARE
Having identified the above organizations corporations and Insurance companies will have requirements to modify their computer systems in addition to interfacing with their respective report-to organizations. And unless I missed it what about the Doctors having to provide information for Obamacare? Finally there is so much more but I did want to give you a flavor of the magnitude of this impossible endeavor.
