The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an editorial suggesting that if the Governor privatizes the Medicaid benefits eligibility determination process for FSSA,it will be (even more of) a debacle.
There are two ways that Gov. Mitch Daniels’ decision to take over the Family and Social Services Administration’s move to privatize welfare eligibility could go.
He could ensure that a decision that profoundly affects so many fragile lives receives the careful analysis it should have gotten in the first place, bringing light and clarity to a murky process.
Or he could advance a pre-ordained contract that gives $1 billion to FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob’s former employer. If he chooses the latter, he’ll be greasing the skids on the road to a debacle.
The main problem seems to be that the only two bidders have what seem to be deal breaking problems: Accenture has a laundry list of snafus with respect to a similar contract in Texas that have them on the brink of being fired . . . in Texas! IBM/ACS not only lost a similar contract in Georgia, it also was the former employer of FSSA’s chief, Mitch Roob.
The Journal Gazette concludes by saying:
Everyone agrees that FSSA should do a better job serving its clients, and most would agree that replacing the agency’s antiquated computer system would go a long way toward improving service. Why not consider contracting for a new computer system that would solve some of the agency’s problems?
A few thousand FSSA employees would be more than happy to use their intimate knowledge of the public benefits system and the people they serve to help a contractor build it better.
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