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As of Monday, northeast Indiana residents hoping to receive Medicaid or food stamp benefits are directed to a Grant County call center instead of a local caseworker. The eligibility modernization effort is intended to fix long-standing problems in Indiana’s welfare system, but the challenge is finding the right balance between efficiency and compassion toward the most vulnerable Hoosiers.
A lawsuit filed Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that balance hasn’t yet been found. The lawsuit cites examples from six households in the 12-county region where the modernization rollout began in October, alleging that the state has unlawfully denied or cut benefits to clients whose applications were missing information.
Mitch Roob, secretary of Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration, the lead defendant named, said the lawsuit and automation effort are unrelated.
“Despite the ACLU’s comments in the newspaper, the suit, per se, has nothing to do with the modernization effort,” he told The Journal Gazette. “It has to do with the manner in which Indiana has administered its program and continues to administer its program during the Bayh, O’Bannon, Kernan and Daniels administrations.”
But he also acknowledged that there have been problems.
“For the willing and able, it works,” Roob said. “For those who are not able, we need to make sure the system is not a barrier.”
David Roos works closely with agencies that help low-income residents apply for Hoosier Healthwise benefits in his work as executive director of Covering Kids for Indiana. He agrees with Roob’s assessment that the problems predated the state’s award of a $1.6 billion, 10-year contract to a coalition that includes IBM Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services Inc. He also noted that the massive problems experienced by Texas when it privatized its welfare eligibility system haven’t materialized here.
“The system has not crashed and burned here in Indiana,” Roos said. “We’re an advocacy group – do I wish things were going smoother and faster? Yeah, but from a historical perspective, the types of issues that were being addressed here pre-existed the (automation) system.”
With that perspective in mind, other advocates need to step up and help the state put a better system in place to ensure that deserving Hoosiers get the help they need, when they need it. The lawsuit, whether it proceeds or not, could serve to show where the system needs fixing.
And it does need repair. A meeting last week in Delaware County, one of the pilot counties, drew almost 500 people unhappy with the new system. Some cried as they told of losing benefits and of struggling to navigate the call center and Web site procedures. A Salvation Army representative said the organization’s food bank has been taxed by the demands of residents who would otherwise have had food stamp benefits.
Roob and other FSSA officials appear to be making a sincere effort to address the automation problems. But they must continue to be open to criticism. Economic conditions are only increasing demands on the system, and it would be a shortsighted approach to eliminate the flexibility needed. That might mean easing some requirements, but most Hoosiers would agree that demanding the last piece of documentation is less important than feeding a hungry child.
While filing a lawsuit isn’t the best approach to problem-solving, it’s sometimes necessary to draw attention to a problem. As Roob points out, it’s not a new problem, but the attention could draw a new and successful approach – one that would best serve the people whose lives depend on it.
