Watchdog: IRS used O-Care database before ready

The IRS began using an ObamaCare database before it had worked out all the security kinks, according to a new report from a federal watchdog.

The Treasury inspector general for tax administration found that the IRS had not completed all the necessary testing for the Coverage Data Repository (CDR) before the 2015 tax filing season started. 

{mosads}The CDR is supposed to store a range of key data for the Affordable Care Act, including household income and insurance coverage. But as of November 2014, the inspector general found that the IRS had only received information for the database from three states. 

On top of that, the IRS didn’t implement its plan to audit the database, which could have put taxpayer records more at risk, the inspector general said.

“It is imperative that the IRS ensures that all its information technology projects, including those associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, are capable of performing the tasks they are designed to perform,” Russell George, the tax administration inspector general, said in a statement.

For its part, the IRS said it didn’t agree with a couple of the inspector general’s recommendations. “The IRS developed a robust strategy tonsure the IRS systems were fully tested and concluded all required tests” before the database went live, wrote Terence Milholland, the IRS’s chief technology officer.