Accenture wins extension of HealthCare.gov contract

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has extended Accenture Federal’s contract to maintain the HealthCare.gov website.

At this time, the contract value has not been finalized, an agency spokesperson told Washington Technology.

According to market research firm Deltek, Accenture has to date won $190.4 million through this contract since it was awarded on Jan. 10, 2014.

There is currently a request for proposals out for a recompete of the work, but this extension is necessary to bridge the gap.

Deltek predicts the contract to be awarded by February 2015.

“With millions of consumers expected to visit the website during open enrollment, we believe it is unwise to potentially transition the systems development and maintenance to a new provider during the open enrollment timeframe,” CMS said.

Controversy surrounded the website when it was first launched with many bugs. CGI Federal was the original contractor before CMS switched over to Accenture Federal.