The Obama administration has acknowledged the problems that ledto the failure of many of the health insuranceco-ops that were set up as part of the PatientProtection and Affordable Care Act, and it’s taking steps to makesure the remaining co-ops don’t meet the same fate.

In particular, the administration hopes to get back some of the$1.17 billion that it loaned to the nonprofit insurers thatshuttered. It hopes to divert that money to those that are stilloperating.

Andy Slavitt, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicareand Medicaid Services, told a Senate committee last week that theagency was conducting diligent reviews of the co-ops finances, andthat more than three-quarters of those who had been enrolled in aco-op plan that failed had been ableto find a new insurance plan.

The feds don’t have a lot of money to play around with for theremaining co-ops. Republicans slashed the funding available forco-ops in a 2013 budget deal from $6 billion to $2 billion. Co-opadministrators have blamed the federal government for reneging onits deal to provide them financial stability to getstarted.

But Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee chastised theadministration, saying that the Department of Health and HumanServices was to blame for the widespread failure.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who chairs the committee, accused HHSof encouraging co-ops to produce misleading financialreports.

"Last year, the agency issued guidance allowing co-ops to applysurplus notes to program start-up loans, which essentially allowedthe co-ops to record loans as assets in their financial filings,"he said, according to MedPage. "Quite honestly, I think I'm being generouswhen I call that kind of accounting creative. Yet, it is, as far aswe know, now the standard of practice among Obamacareco-ops."

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, the committee’s ranking member, pushedback, arguing that Republicans had largely sabotaged the program bycutting its funding and imposing tough loan repaymentrules.

"Congress denied the ability to move resources that would helpnew co-ops weathering growing pains to continue serving consumers,”he said.