How Much Is Oracle To Blame For Healthcare IT Woes? 275
Nerval's Lobster writes "The state of Oregon blames Oracle for the failures of its online health exchange. The health-insurance site still doesn't fully work as intended, with many customers forced to download and fill out paper applications rather than sign up online; Oracle has reportedly informed the state that it will sort out the bulk of technical issues by December 16, a day after those paper applications are due. 'It is the most maddening and frustrating position to be in, absolutely,' Liz Baxter, chairwoman of the board for the online exchange, told NPR. 'We have spent a lot of money to get something done—to get it done well—to serve the people in our state, and it is maddening that we can't seem to get over this last hump.' Oregon state officials insist that, despite payments of $43 million, Oracle missed multiple deadlines in the months leading up to the health exchange's bungled launch." (Read more, below.)
"This isn't the first time Oracle's name has circulated in conjunction with the Affordable Care Act's digital drama. In November, USA Today published a piece suggesting that 'communication breakdowns' with Oracle Identity Manager had led to 'bottlenecks' in the registration process for Healthcare.gov, the federal online health exchange, which in turn prevented some users from signing up for healthcare. But a single contractor doesn't lie at the root of the federal Healthcare.gov's spectacular debacle: despite months of preparations, large sections of the site remained unfinished on launch day, and the completed parts crashed as soon as users began entering the site. According to multiple sources, the Medicare agency tasked with overseeing the project failed to adequately test, much less integrate, the site's complex elements ahead of launch day. Even if it didn't hold that much responsibility for the federal Website's issues, though, Oracle could find itself the target of much more blame in the Oregon case, where it was reportedly the sole contractor and overseer."
What a joke (Score:5, Funny)
Based on my experience (Score:4, Funny)
Having only recently started to use Oracle, and based on those experiences, I'm pretty sure that 90% of all cancer cases in the U.S. can be blamed on Oracle.
Re: There is Oracle, and Oracle consultants (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine what it would be like if it were running SAP.
Re: Based on my experience (Score:4, Funny)
On the other hand it is a known contributing factor for alcoholism and depression.
Re:No company can build well with a bad spec (Score:5, Funny)
>Grab example schema from a private insurance firm, adapt them to this task, and go from there.
You clearly have never worked with code from an insurance company. It's code that goes back to Rome, with layers of crap built on top of layers of crap. The code comments have remarks from developers begging for the sweet release of death.
Re:What a joke (Score:3, Funny)
Agreed, the whole reason the Obamacare website failed is because it was built by a big evil corporation on proprietary software instead of by a group of plucky college students building it on OSS out of a coffee shop. Global warming probably also played a role.
Oracle? Slow? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:If you fall for a scam, who's fault is it? (Score:4, Funny)
Though to me it seems that if you sold used cars like you sold software you would go to prison. If you sold real estate like you sold software you would go to prison.
As in:
"Hey buddy. I'll sell you a car. Sort of like the ones on the lot, but different and better. No not in stock yet be can have real soon. We'll need some money up front. Should have it in a few days. Thanks for the cash. But we've been having some problems at the auctions. It turns out we have to hire someone to go to the auctions. To do that we'll need a bit more cash. Great news we got a great car for you! But we need to ship it. We don't want to risk damaging it. We'll need a little more cash. Darn, we forgot about the shipping insurance but hey, you already own the car so we might as well get it here. Thanks for the cash. Great news it's here! Try it out. What, it's a right hand drive? You didn't specify, sorry we didn't ask. But there are kits we can install for just a few bucks more. If you want to we can subscribe you to upgrades and maintenance for a small fee. And check out those nice new floor mats! Oh, sorry, we didn't realize it was only running on 7 cylinders. But hey, we can fix it. Sorry, the warranty doesn't cover that but we will throw in a free tank of gas. Thanks and if you tell everyone how great we are we will throw in an extra year of maintenance for free!"
Software companies are below the slimiest of used car salesmen.
43 Million Dollars!? (Score:5, Funny)
Well there's the problem right there... they only paid 43 Million dollars. I think that's enough to buy one license of Oracle DB... for maybe a week or so...