ObamaCare contractor fires back at accusations

The company Serco is firing back at accusations that it is cheating the government by running an ObamaCare processing center where employees do little work.

A spokesman for Serco said its workload under the $1.25 billion contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ebbs and flows.

{mosads}“As in any business or major program there are peaks and valleys as the various tasks stop and start,” Alan Hill said. “The number of staff Serco has working on the Marketplace is reviewed on a regular basis by CMS and any adjustments are made to ensure tasks are successfully completed in the most efficient manner.”

The British company has come under fire from Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) after news reports from St. Louis’s KMOV alleged the firm was paying workers at its Wentzville, Mo., processing facility to essentially sit around.

Serco says between the time HealthCare.gov launched last October and late this April, its workers have processed more than 1 million documents and made 1.4 million outbound calls to ObamaCare applicants.

Hill acknowledged part of the reason why there may have been a lighter workload in the past could be attributed to the slow enrollment start for the Affordable Care Act, but he said the facility’s workload spiked in the final enrollment surge.

Hill said Serco expects to be busy when the new enrollment period begins this October and as it starts other projects. He would not elaborate on what those projects are.

Blunt and Alexander wrote the CMS to investigate the allegations Serco employees were being paid to do little work and asked the agency to respond by May 30.

The agency says it has monitored the workload of the 660 people employed at the Wentzville facility and is “confident that the balance is appropriate.”