Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE)

Volume 25

Volume 25 Number 4, Pages 289-294

Late Fall 2014


Teaching Case
Healthcare.gov: Opportunity out of Disaster


Jacob Cundiff
Taylor McCallum
Andrew Rich
Michael Truax
Tamara Ward
Douglas Havelka
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056, USA

Abstract: The launch of HealthCare.gov, the website of the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare), was a major public relations disaster for the Obama administration. This case examines some of the factors that contributed to the failure of the launch and then details how Optum, an information technology service provider, considered the opportunity provided by the failure. The case provides examples of both good and bad IT management processes and poses questions for discussion related to the evaluation of risk associated with high profile projects.

Keywords: Teaching case, Health care, Project management, Outsourcing

Download this article: JISE - Volume 25 Number 4, Page 289.pdf


Recommended Citation: Cundiff, J., McCallum, T., Rich, A., Truax, M., Ward, T., & Havelka, D. (2014). Teaching Case: Healthcare.gov: Opportunity out of Disaster. Journal of Information Systems Education, 25(4), 289-294.