Recently in Social Services Category

Source: By Tim Evans, Indianapolis Star (IN), July 24, 2006

A $1 billion proposal to privatize the application process for welfare benefits in Indiana now has a favored candidate: a group that includes the most recent past employer of the state's social services chief. Gov. Mitch Daniels recently confirmed that the only group left in negotiations is an IBM-led team of 10 companies that includes Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Systems, which is where Indiana Family and Social Service Administration chief Mitch Roob worked just before joining state government. …… "My concern is not that Mitch Roob will benefit personally," said David Warrick, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 62 and a critic of the privatization plan.

Source: Austin American Statesman (TX), Friday, July 21, 2006

It's too soon to terminate the state's deeply troubled human services contract with the consulting firm Accenture, as a bipartisan group of 60 state lawmakers wants to do. But the experience with Accenture so far suggests that taxpayers ought to grab hold of their wallets the next time politicians and lobbyists start ballyhooing the alleged efficiency of the private sector over a state agency.

Source: Houston Chronicle, July 17, 2006

Since the Texas Health and Human Services Commission approved an $899 million contract with a consortium led by Bermuda-based Accenture, very little has gone right. The people who've paid for the blunders are the state's poor, particularly children and the elderly.

...... At minimum, HHS officials need to develop much tighter monitoring procedures of the new call centers to guarantee proper handling of applications and eligibility screening. Accenture should be financially penalized for its failure to meet promised service levels and its contract revoked if problems continue.

Source: Bill Sloat, Plain Dealer (OH), Thursday, July 13, 2006

Cincinnati- Four state whistleblowers will split a $232,000 settlement from a welfare-reform contractor that they said billed Ohio at excessive rates and received payments for work it was never hired to perform. Some of that work included preparing data for one of Gov. Bob Taft's State of the State speeches, their lawyer said Wednesday. …… They sued American Management Systems Inc., which got nearly $120 million in state consulting contracts. Court records show the company negotiated a deal with the whistleblowers and Justice Department lawyers.

Source: By LIZ AUSTIN, The Associated Press (TX), July 13, 2006

AUSTIN - Sixty state representatives asked the Health and Human Services Commission on Wednesday to fire the contractor in charge of processing applications for Texas' low-cost insurance program for children and running the state's new benefits eligibility system. The letter, written by Republican Rep. Pat Haggerty of El Paso, urges Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins to cancel the state's contract with Accenture and rebuild the community-based benefits system.

Source: KEN KUSMER, Associated Press, July 05. 2006 6:59AM

INDIANAPOLIS -- Federal reviews of documents and other factors will delay -- possibly for months -- the state's plan to outsource the application process for food stamps, Medicaid and other government safety-net programs. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration originally hoped to turn over the application process to private vendors with the start of the new state fiscal year this month.

Source: Celia Hagert, CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY PRIORITIES, Austin American Statesman (TX), Monday, June 26, 2006

The state's attempt to change the way Texans in need get health care, food, and temporary cash assistance has been a disaster. In June 2005, the state outsourced the enrollment process. As a result, more than 100,000 children lost their health insurance in the past six months. As of May 9, nearly 7,000 Food Stamp applications were backlogged, leaving thousands of families without food.

Source: By Josh Hafenbrack, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, June 25, 2006

Florida's switch to a privatized child-welfare system has been followed by increased instances of abuse and more children shuffled among foster homes, a state audit has found.

The number of Florida children who are abused multiple times has steadily increased since the state started shifting its child-welfare system to private hands in 1999, according to a report released this month by the Legislature's investigative arm, the Office of Program and Policy Analysis & Government Accountability.

Florida Today, June 23, 2006

Privatization has long been the mantra in Tallahassee, touted as the miracle cure to cut taxpayer costs. In 1998 lawmakers targeted child welfare services, mandating foster care, adoption and child abuse prevention services be outsourced to private, community-based providers by 2005. ....... An audit from the state's Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability released this week shows the new system has had some successes, such as doubling the adoption rate for foster kids. But it also points out glaring deficiencies, culled from data comparing the year before the transition to private agencies to fiscal year 2004-05.

Source: By Diana Washington Valdez. El Paso Times (TX), 06/14/2006 12:00:00 AM MDT

About a third of people from throughout Texas who called the state's CHIP call center hung up for various reasons, possibly out of frustration. According to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, during the week of May 7, nearly 43 percent of calls placed to the Accenture/Texas Access Alliance call center in Midland were what the state considers "abandoned calls." For the week ended June 11, the rate was better but still high at about 32 percent.

Mike Gross, vice president of the Texas State Employees Union, said that the abandoned-call rate is the percentage of callers who hang up before an operator answers their call, and that long waits on hold are the main reason people give up on their calls. According to the $899 million call center contract, the contractor is supposed to keep the abandoned call rate at 5 percent or below.