Tech contractor says feds were warned about exchange site problems; pension funds ask for climate change study; and feds try to muzzle N.D. officials about exchange enrollment: 3 things you need to kn

Contractor testifies that CMS knew healthcare.gov wasn’t adequately tested

Is it the Affordable Care Act’s first whistleblower? In recent congressional hearings on the law’s problematic technical launch, a software contractor testified that his company told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that healthcare.gov hadn’t been properly tested prior to the site’s launch on Oct.1, Reuters reports.

"We expressed all of those concerns and risks," Andrew Slavitt, executive vice president with the parent of Quality Software Services Inc. (QSSI), a unit of UnitedHealth Group, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He added that full testing wasn’t conducted until “days” before the exchanges opened Oct. 1, but that “months would be nice.”

According to the news service, Slavitt did not go into detail about his specific concerns or which officials within CMS he spoke with.

QSSI was tasked with creating the software that allows healthcare.gov users to create accounts.

Pension fund heavyweights throw clout behind climate change study

News from the Associated Press reveals that some of the nation’s largest pension funds are seeking more information about a potential shift toward greater investments in clean energy sources, born from worries that fossil fuel companies may decline in profitability due to climate change research.

Leaders of 70 funds are asking 45 of the world's top oil, gas, coal and electric power companies to do detailed assessments of how efforts to control climate change could impact their businesses.

"The underlying question here is the billions of dollars that are being invested" in exploration for fossil fuels every year, and whether that's a prudent investment, said Jack Ehnes, the head of the California's State Teachers' Retirement System, which has about $5.4 billion invested in major fossil fuel companies. "The scientific trajectory that we're on is clearly in conflict" with the business strategy of the companies, Ehnes added, referring to the growing scientific consensus that global warming is a man-made threat, and that pollution from fossil fuels is a major contributor.

This week’s (not so) hidden gem: Feds ask N. Dakota’s BCSB not to release exchange numbers

The Obama administration asked North Dakota’s largest health insurer not to release data about the number of state residents that have signed up for the state’s insurance exchange, the (N.D.) Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reports.

Although a consumer sales manager with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, told a Fargo crowd this week that the company received the request from the federal government, a BCB spokeswoman says only about 14 North Dakotans have signed up for coverage since the federal exchange went live Oct. 1, bringing statewide enrollment to 20—less than one per day.