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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Ind. Gov't. - "Welfare modernization critics see progress: State system's chief credited with tremendous leap forward"

Eric Bradner reported May 9th in the Evansville Courier & Press:

INDIANAPOLIS — Four months into a pilot program intended to rectify problems with Indiana's handling of welfare applications, statistics show a speedier process with fewer complaints, and organizations that assist the poor and elderly say the improvements are significant.

As Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration prepares to show the results of its new "hybrid" system to a state fiscal panel Tuesday, those who have criticized Gov. Mitch Daniels' administration's efforts in the past now say they are ready to see the new program expanded.

"Today things are better," said state Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, a leading critic of the modernization effort. "We are hearing fewer complaints. That's not to say that we don't still hear some, because we do, but not nearly as many or as often." * * *

FSSA Secretary Anne Murphy will detail the hybrid system's performance in a presentation before the State Budget Committee on Tuesday.

After taking the agency's helm last year, Murphy began meeting regularly with legislators, hospitals and advocacy groups in Southwestern Indiana.

Lawmakers such as Becker, who lambasted her predecessor, Mitch Roob, now the state Secretary of Commerce, offer much rosier views of Murphy's job performance.

"I have to give Anne Murphy a lot of credit," Becker said.

Deidra Conner, the president of Evansville ARC, which assists disabled people, said before meetings in the Evansville area, Murphy typically asks her to compile a list of problems and complaints experienced by those invited to attend.

"Historically, I would get anywhere from three to six pages of issues and complaints. Before the last meeting six weeks ago, I got one e-mail," and the e-mail indicated FSSA already had been notified of the problem and was working on a solution, Conner said.

"The complaints by the agencies have dropped tremendously," she said, adding that Murphy told those at the meeting six weeks ago that the hybrid system has performed better than either the old system or the modernized version.

"The room seemed to concur with that. We view it right now as a big success story," Conner said. "I just really feel like it's a good example of how people who are really engaged in the community wouldn't let it go but dealt with it professionally."

She, too, credited Murphy.

"Mitch Roob did not seem to acknowledge or accept that there were problems with the modernized system, whereas Anne saw it for what it was and realized that people in need were falling through the cracks," Conner said.

Meanwhile, FSSA still is disengaging from the IBM deal. The company has sent the state invoices seeking more than $125 million, and Barlow said the state is refusing to make those payments.

Ken Kusmer of the AP reported last evening:
Some advocates agreed welfare intake appears to operate better under the hybrid system than in the rest of the state, but said they needed to see more data before calling it a success.

"At the very least, the public complaints seem to have dropped off in the hybrid region substantially," said John Cardwell, chairman of the Indiana Home Care Task Force.

David Roos, director of the public health insurance advocacy group Covering Kids & Families of Indiana, said the data showed FSSA making progress but internal FSSA data shows hybrid counties lagging behind the state averages for enrollment growth for Hoosier Healthwise and other Medicaid programs.

From Mary Beth Schneider's story in the Indianapolis Star:
Armed with evidence that the changes made to welfare delivery in a 10-county pilot project are working, the state will announce today whether it will expand the program to more areas of Indiana.

Gov. Mitch Daniels pulled the plug on a $1.34 billion IBM contract for a centralized welfare intake system in October. The Family and Social Services Administration replaced it with a hybrid program, combining modernization and computerization of records with the face-to-face contact between caseworkers and clients that was the hallmark of past welfare systems.

Monday, FSSA said the experiment, which has been limited to 10 counties in southwestern Indiana, has led to far fewer complaints and problems than under IBM's management. A decision on whether to expand it will come today, said FSSA spokesman Marcus Barlow.

Under the modernized, IBM-run system, people were pushed to apply for benefits by phone or computer, with calls routed through a centralized call center. In the hybrid system, caseworkers are back in county offices instead of in the call centers, although a smaller call center still handles simple requests, such as changes of address.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 11, 2010 09:00 AM
Posted to Indiana Government