Oracle and Google experts helping to fix Obamacare website

New York -- Experts from Oracle, Google, Red Hat Inc. and other top technology and Internet companies are joining the effort to "address the problems around Healthcare.gov," the health-insurance exchange website for the Affordable Care Act, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.



The website has been plagued by slowdowns and severely limited functionality since its rollout on Oct. 1.



"They are working through the analytics of what happens on the site to prioritize what needs to be fixed,” Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is overseeing the effort, told reporters on a conference call.



“I know it’s a very political topic,” Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said Thursday at the software maker’s annual meeting. “As an information technology company we are doing everything we can to help.”



Michael Dickerson, a site reliability engineer on leave from Google, and Greg Gershman, innovation director for smartphone application maker Mobomo, are among those helping, the Obama administration said. Gershman previously worked for the White House and the General Services Administration.