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INDIANAPOLIS – State officials outlined a framework but offered few details for lawmakers Friday regarding the transition to a new welfare eligibility system.
It has been a week since Gov. Mitch Daniels announced he was canceling the remainder of a 10-year, $1.3 billion contract with IBM to modernize Indiana’s old system.
The cancellation came after continued complaints about error rates and long waits to get food stamps, Medicaid certification and welfare benefits.
Anne Murphy, secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, gave a presentation to the State Budget Committee about the foundation of a new hybrid system that will be put in place in December.
For instance, she said applicants will still have the option of applying by phone or online if they are comfortable with that technology. But face-to-face interviews in local county offices will also be available.
If a person applies by phone or Internet, the case will be routed to the person’s home county. But the county offices will work in regions, helping out if a neighboring county is overwhelmed.
Murphy outlined a two-tiered system, meant to prevent fraud, in which a contract employee will handle the application and documentation and then give it to a state worker, who will determine eligibility.
Call centers will still exist in some format, but Murphy said they will mainly update records on eligible cases – such as new addresses or employment status updates.
It is unclear how many employees will be needed for the new hybrid system, as well as how many will work for the state and how many will work for contractors.
Right now, the system involves about 3,200 personnel – including 725 state employees and more than 2,500 contract employees.
That is a 36 percent staff increase over the previous system. Murphy said the increase was needed to cope with a growing number of applicants.
She also told the group of lawmakers Friday that she received contracts for the 22 subcontractors this week. FSSA will have to assess in the next two months whether, for certain functions, the state will take over, keep the current contractor or look for a new vendor.
Murphy said the state will have a detailed implementation plan after Dec. 15.
“She can’t answer a lot of questions right now because she doesn’t know,” said Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington.
“But Anne Murphy pulled the plug on IBM, and I have no doubt she would have the courage to do the same on any other contractor not doing their job.”
One lawmaker attending the meeting pleaded for the state agency to introduce the hybrid system through a small pilot program consisting of a few diverse counties.
Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, has been at the forefront of trying to get the administration to cancel the contract for more than two years, and she said a pilot would save money and grief.
“I applaud the governor for his slow but finally accepting responsibility for a very flawed system,” she said. “I had two constituents die waiting for their Medicaid to be recertified, so I take this very seriously.”
One woman had cancer, and Becker acknowledged her death would have come regardless.
“But she spent the last six months of her life in stress, begging for rides from churches and the local community. She lost her transportation. She lost her food stamps,” Becker said.
“When you think about the stress involved in the last six months of her life, I’m sure her life was shortened.”
