Navigating Federal Audits and Acquisition Diligence for Catch
Catch operates a health insurance platform integrated with CMS/EDE. During CMS/EDE phase changes, federal security audit scrutiny, and acquisition diligence, technical decisions stopped being reversible. The system had to withstand regulatory review and external technical scrutiny at the same time — without disrupting live enrollments.
The acquisition introduced external technical diligence, forcing the system to withstand scrutiny from federal auditors and an acquiring engineering team at the same time.
Non-Negotiable Constraints
- CMS/EDE phase changes increased regulatory scrutiny and required defensible controls.
- Federal security audits raised the bar on governance, access, logging, and evidence.
- Infrastructure changes had to be executed without disrupting live enrollment flows.
- Technical debt and performance ceilings were pulling engineers off the roadmap and inflating infrastructure cost.
- Acquisition scrutiny: The acquisition introduced third-party technical diligence, external timelines, and a much lower tolerance for ambiguity, making system clarity and operational reliability mandatory.
What changed
AWS Remediation & Cloud Governance
Remediated AWS infrastructure and governance so the environment could be explained, defended, and operated under audit conditions (controls, access boundaries, logging, and evidence).
Reliability and scale
Addressed failure modes and bottlenecks that created operational drag, reducing fragility under production load and restoring shipping velocity.
Integration readiness
Improved system clarity, documentation, and operational transparency required for acquisition diligence, reducing technical uncertainty during review and post-acquisition integration.
Outcomes
- Audit anxiety: Audit-ready posture with clearer control ownership.
- Reactive firefighting: Deliberate delivery and more predictable operations.
- Rising infrastructure cost: Reduced waste and clearer spend drivers.
- Fragility under load: More resilient performance and scalability.
- Acquisition readiness: Reduced technical uncertainty during diligence by improving system clarity, governance, and operational reliability.
- Reduced acquisition risk: Improved system clarity and operational reliability during technical diligence and post-acquisition integration.
- Acquisition confidence: Reduced technical uncertainty during diligence by making the system understandable, defensible, and operationally reliable for an acquiring company.
Not auditors
We are not auditors. We do the remediation and engineering work that makes audit frameworks workable in real systems.
In this case, that work had to stand up to federal auditors and an acquiring company evaluating long-term technical risk.
If you are approaching a compliance review, a scaling ceiling, or an integration event
We can help reduce risk without stalling the roadmap.
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