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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Ind. Gov't. - More on: Daniels' welfare privatization: Too big to fail? Shouldn't we be working on a Plan B?
From a Star story quoted in this ILB entry July 20th:
FSSA Secretary Anne Murphy has said that if IBM's service record does not improve by September, it's possible the contract will be canceled.Last evening Indy 6 News had this story. Some quotes:
Officials with the Family and Social Services Administration were given a 90 days to meet with IBM and the other companies that have taken over welfare intake in 59 of Indiana's 92 counties and handle about one-third of the state's 1.2 million-person caseload, 6 News' Norman Cox reported. * * *Even some of Gov. Mitch Daniels' own Republican legislators said putting caseworkers back with recipients has to happen.
Evansville Sen. Vaneta Becker said administrators have trouble relating to older and disabled recipients who can't deal with computers and being put on hold for literally hours.
FSSA officials said they will require the private vendors to get things done in a timelier manner and keep better track of records. But they refused to offer any specifics about what changes would be made.
"Well, I think it's important to say there is no set what's going to happen yet. What is important to us is the results," said FSSA spokesman Marcus Barlow.
Daniels said the contract with IBM probably won't be canceled, but said the state won't tolerate poor service. * * *
One of the reasons the state switched to the modernized system was so that all recipients' records could be scanned into the system and accessed by anyone at the call center. But Becker said she was told that the records are just sitting in a warehouse because IBM said it was too expensive to scan them all.
Daniels said he'll announce changes to the system in October.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 22, 2009 12:49 PM
Posted to Indiana Government