The federal exchange site can now process nearly 17,000 registrants per hour with almost no errors, CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner told the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee yesterday.
Consumers can also successfully create accounts and complete the full application and enrollment process through HealthCare.gov, according to Ms. Tavenner. She also said federal officials have reconfigured various system components to improve the site's responsiveness and added capacity by doubling the number of servers, among other repairs.
Federal officials overseeing the exchange are currently in the midst of a "tech surge" to fix the exchange site, which has experience numerous technical issues since its launch last month such as crashes due to high traffic and people being unable to create accounts.
At separate congressional hearings last week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Ms. Tavenner both apologized for the glitch-ridden rollout, which has frustrated consumers and drawn criticism from opponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Obama administration officials have vowed to repair the site by the end of this month. Consumers should expect more crashes during the improvement process, according to CMS.
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