Recently in Social Services Category

Source: By Ethan Butterfield, Washington Technology, 06/12/06; Vol. 21 No. 11

We’ve grown fond of the way the Internet has made some of life’s most tedious and time-consuming transactions less onerous. ...... Now, citizens who receive public assistance are pressing for the same kind of online access from human services agencies.

...... Most state governments are running their human services programs on IT platforms that are two or three decades old and no longer can provide the services that government leaders and citizens demand. The push for replacements and sweeping improvements in service delivery is strong and growing, said industry officials and analysts. Market research firm Input Inc. of Reston, Va., is tracking about 80 human services acquisitions across the country. State and local spending on human services hardware, software and services will grow at an average annual rate of 8.3 percent, from $8.3 billion in fiscal 2006 to $10.7 billion in fiscal 2009, according to market research firm Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn.

June 6, 2006, 8:59PM
Source: Houston Chronicle, June 7, 2006

Not even the fiercest critics of Texas' social service privatization scheme envisioned it. For the past three months, according to Chronicle reporter Polly Ross Hughes, dozens of private health and financial forms faxed to the Health and Human Services Commission belched forth instead into the Take Care Store warehouse in Seattle. No critic could predict the snafu, and no lawmaker — even those who pushed the disastrous privatizing of benefits screening — would wish it. A wrongly printed form, it turns out, may have given applicants the wrong fax number.

...... The so-called "black hole" episode just adds to the damage already inflicted by Accenture, the new screening contractor that wrongly disenrolled numerous Texas children from health insurance for the working poor. The incidents worsen the effect of new enrollment policies, which make qualifying for that insurance harder.

Source: By LIZ AUSTIN, Associated Press (TX), Fri, May. 26, 2006

AUSTIN - The Texas Health and Human Services Commission may force the contractor in charge of operating two major benefit programs to repay the state for unexpected costs in the rocky rollout of its new online eligibility system. The Texas Access Alliance could also be penalized for failing to meet performance goals outlined in its contract, commission officials said Thursday. ...... Using the new system, the state plans to replace 99 of its 310 eligibility offices with four call centers run by the TAA, a group of companies led by the technology consulting firm Accenture.

GAO Report GAO-06-342, March 28, 2006

As states and the federal government have sought to streamline and improve administrative processes and take advantage of technological advances, both have outsourced certain functions to private firms. In some cases, these firms have used offshore resources to perform these functions. As a result, questions have been raised about the prevalence of offshoring in federal human services programs. In response to widespread congressional interest, we conducted work under the Comptroller General's authority to determine (1) the occurrence and nature of offshoring, (2) the benefits state agencies have achieved through offshoring and problems they have encountered, and (3) the actions, if any, states and the federal government have taken to limit offshoring and why.

...... On average, these comparisons showed that with some services performed offshore, contract costs would be between 0.3 and 24 percent less than if all the services in the contracts were to be performed in the United States. The few state officials that reported any problems with the quality of services provided by offshore contractors said that they involved difficulties in understanding the English of software programmers or customer service representatives. While numerous actions have been proposed at the state and federal levels to limit offshoring by government agencies, few restrictions exist with respect to the six programs we reviewed. Two states--New Jersey and Arizona--have prohibited offshoring in state contracts.

Source: Guillermo X. Garcia, Express-News (TX), Web Posted: 05/25/2006 12:00 AM CDT

Declaring it a failed experiment that is harming the neediest in the state, a group of Texas congressmen including Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, a San Antonio Democrat, urged state leaders Wednesday to immediately cease a plan to privatize the screening of welfare applications. But Republican leaders, who control the Legislature and the top elected offices in the state, appeared unwilling to comply with the House Democrats' request.

Source: By Ken Kusmer, Associated Press (IN), Wed, May. 24, 2006

The union chief for workers at the state’s human services agency has written Gov. Mitch Daniels to question a plan to outsource, with little input from the public, the application process for food stamps and other welfare benefits. Executive Director David Warrick of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-Council 62 said in a letter dated Friday that in other states, contract employees “have given applicants erroneous or contradictory information that has resulted in loss or refusal of benefits in which they are entitled.” It cited problems with similar contracts in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Source: Guillermo X. Garcia, Express-News (TX), Web Posted: 05/22/2006 12:00 AM CDT

The Bermuda-based contractor hired to streamline and privatize the state's welfare eligibility system has been paid $91 million under a problem-filled contract that is the subject of increasing legislative criticism. The five-year $899 million contract signed last year amid much fanfare is the largest contract of its kind in the state's history.

Source: By Tim Evans, Indianapolis Star (IN), May 17, 2006

A massive effort to privatize claims processing for a million needy Hoosiers is drawing fire from critics who say the process is moving too fast and the two contenders have spotty track records. Consortiums headed by IBM and Accenture are seeking the $1 billion contract that could become a contentious issue for the Daniels administration. The Family and Social Services Administration is expected to announce a private partner within a month. Both contenders have run into problems with similar deals in other states:

...... A partner in the IBM group, Affiliated Computer Services, lost part of a Georgia contract two years ago because of problems processing claims. Texas-based ACS also is the former employer of FSSA Secretary E. Mitchell Roob Jr.

Source: KEN KUSMER, Associated Press (IN), Sat, May. 13, 2006

..... Controversy likely will flare again around FSSA once it picks the winner of the largest contract in state history. Two teams of vendors - each vulnerable to criticism - are vying for a deal estimated at $1 billion over 10 years to take over applications for Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and other benefits received by one in six Indiana residents. Critics went to work months ago gathering information on the out-of-state companies leading each team. FSSA changed the timeline for awarding the contract after The Associated Press reported the agency would not hold a public hearing until after the contract was awarded. The agency now plans a hearing June 30, five days before the deal is due to be awarded. ..... Roob, in awarding the state's largest contract ever, will choose between two teams of vendors, one led by Bahamas-based Accenture LLP and the other by IBM and Affiliated Computer Systems Inc., or ACS. The two teams submitted their final offers last week.

Source: Waco Tribune (TX), Sunday, May 14, 2006

It’s one of Texas’ biggest stories in years. Too bad few Texans know about it. It’s the great Texas Push-Button Bureaucracy-Eliminating Paper-Pusher Massacre (TPBBEPPM). I made that name up but not the debacle that state policymakers now face. It’s a mess they’re hoping will slide right past your nose. It came with an understated announcement last week: that 1,000 employees that the Texas Commission on Health and Human Services said it wouldn’t need are needed still. The state was prepared to send the jobs through a corporate shredder. It was part of a massive privatized effort to change how Texas grants food stamps, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).