IDG News Service - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services took too little time testing how the many components of the troubled HealthCare.gov worked together before rolling out the insurance marketplace, contractors involved in the project said Thursday.

The HSS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS] spent two weeks testing the complex, $500 million website in house before it launched Oct. 1 to widespread errors and slow load times, representatives of two major contractors working on the site told members of Congress.

CGI Federal, one of the main contractors for the Obamacare website, "would have liked to have months" to test how the multiple pieces of the project worked together, said Cheryl Campbell, a senior vice president for the company.

Yet, Campbell said CGI Federal did not ask CMS for more time to test the project, saying the decision on when to launch was up to CMS. Optum/QSSI, another contractor responsible for testing the website, did recommend more testing, but the project moved forward to meet its scheduled launch, said Andrew Slavitt, group executive vice president for the company.