Healthcare.gov - Nov. 25, 2013 - "Adding Capacity"

[TomCADem]

Beyond the MSM/right wing talking points, performance has dramatically improved on the federal website where even John Boehner was able to enroll even though he was trying to fail.

http://www.hhs.gov/digitalstrategy/blog/2013/11/adding-capacity.html

Over the weekend, we implemented software fixes focused on enhancing the user experience, improving enrollment, and streamlining the workflow for agents, brokers and call center representatives.

Additionally, we added storage capacity in the CMS Data center. This infrastructure improvement will enable increased processing power as more users move through the system.

It’s likely that as we move forward we’ll find additional glitches and experience intermittent periods of sub-optimal performance, when the system may be slow or not responsive. Just this morning, due to parts of the system not communicating effectively, the application and enrollment tools on HealthCare.gov was unavailable for approximately one hour. Our tech team quickly resolved the issue and got the system back on track. The Data Services Hub remained fully operational.

We’ve made measurable progress in addressing two issues: Improving the user experience and managing capacity shortfalls and volume.

In terms of improving the site experience, the vast majority of users will not experience the slow response times, error messages, and system outages that characterized their experience in October. The system will not work perfectly on December 1st, but it will operate much better than it did on October 1st.

In terms of capacity, by the end of the month HealthCare.gov will be able to operate at the capacity that was originally intended: a rate of approximately 50,000 users on the site at the same time. This means the system will be able to accommodate more than 800,000 visits a day from consumers who are seeking information, filling out applications, shopping, and enrolling.

There will be times that volume on HealthCare.gov will exceed this demand, and we are preparing for that. If we experience extraordinary demand, consumers may not be immediately able to complete the application. They will be queued, in order to ensure a smoother process, and will experience some wait time.

We will continue to work every day to ensure that every American who wants it has access to these new, quality, coverage options.