Oracle says it sued to get feds to investigate Cover Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The main tech contractor on the failed Cover Oregon health insurance exchange says it has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, saying the agency has neglected to investigate misconduct allegations.

Oracle says it filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Washington, D.C. It is the latest salvo in a long-running legal battle between Oracle and Oregon over the failed health exchange. The two sides have blamed each other in multiple lawsuits.

Oracle has maintained it was never fully paid for its work on the $300 million project and that the state illegally used Oracle code.

The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

John Cooney, an attorney for the company, says the Affordable Care Act requires Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell to investigate allegations of misconduct involving exchanges.

She has yet to do so in Oregon or six other states with troubled exchanges, despite $1.45 billion in federal grants awarded to those states to build the exchanges, Cooney said.

“We are taking this action because the extraordinary facts of this case require federal investigation and oversight,” Cooney said.

Among other things, Cooney claims Oregon officials made false statements to Health and Human Services and gave “unelected political operatives control over ACA implementation.”

The state then filed litigation against a contractor to attempt to distract attention from its own failure, he said.

Oregon pulled the plug on its health exchange in 2014 and switched to the federal portal.

The state has been seeking to recoup the millions of dollars it paid Oracle to construct the glitch-filled website. It has accused Oracle and its executives of corruption.

Kristina Edmunson, spokeswoman for Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, said the lawsuit is a publicity stunt.

“Oracle filed the very first lawsuit in this case, and the company continues to file additional lawsuits along the way -this is their fifth -in a desperate attempt to delay and avoid the true facts,” she said.