Agency contradicts Slom, says Connector probe isn’t done deal

A representative of the U.S. Government Accountability Office said the agency has not yet determined whether Hawaii will be part of its investigations into "Obama­care" health insurance exchanges, despite an announcement to that effect by a state senator Thursday.

Republican state Sen. Sam Slom announced that the independent, nonpartisan agency that investigates federal government spending for Congress had agreed to look into the Hawaii Health Connector’s use of $204 million in federal grants.

"There must have been some misunderstanding because it is not correct that GAO has determined which state exchanges will be closely examined as part of our work," Chuck Young, the agency’s managing director of public affairs, said in an email Friday. Young, based in Washington, D.C., said the "GAO will indeed be looking generally at state exchanges but a list of which ones we will examine in more detail is still under development," with the exception of Oregon, which the agency previously announced.

Slom said Friday that David Lewis, assistant director of the GAO, called him at 1 p.m. Thursday and verbally confirmed an impending probe into the Hawaii Health Connector’s use of taxpayers’ dollars.

"My word is my documentation," Slom said. "I have always backed up my statements, and I do now. We had about a 15-minute conversation. It was very clear. I haven’t tried to make it into anything other than what it is. No one has called me about any misunderstanding."

Slom complained in March to the GAO that Hawaii had spent more than $80 million on information technology contracts for a faulty website. Most of that money went to embattled contractor CGI Group Inc., the same company that built the problematic federal exchanges, and Hawaii had the lowest enrollment rate in the country at fewer than 8,000 as of the March 31 deadline to enroll in Obama­care coverage.

Slom said that in response to his letter, the GAO agreed to include Hawaii in its investigations of six other states that received federal grants to build health insurance exchanges, the cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

"It seems interesting to me that all of a sudden there would be this kind of response but none to me," Slom said.

"Some people are trying to make it political. I come from a position … where economically they cannot justify the numbers, sustainability or business plan they had from the very beginning. That’s what troubles me the most. I stand by the story 100 percent."