• Food stamp frustration is valid, state audit report says, By Corrie MacLaggan, March 30, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Applying for food stamps in Texas can be quite a chore, according to a new state auditor’s report. Need to ask a basic question? Forget the phone. Workers often don’t have time to answer questions by phone and their voice mailboxes tend to be full, the report says. Instead, applicants ‘make unnecessary trips to a local office, in which they sometimes sit for hours just to ask a question or submit a document,’ says the report released Tuesday by State Auditor John Keel. ‘Crowded lobbies, long waits, and delays in eligibility determinations clearly resulted in frustrated clients,’ the report said. The report describes an inefficient system in which 80 percent of cases are kept on paper and a lack of experienced workers is contributing to problems processing applications accurately and within the 30 days required by the federal government. It recommends using technology such as automated kiosks and allowing applicants to check the status of cases online, an option the state now makes available only to certain applicants…”
• State auditor questions social services agency’s no-bid deal with ex-colleague to fix welfare problems, By Robert T. Garrett, March 31, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “State Auditor John Keel has questioned why state social services officials awarded work to a former colleague without seeking other bids, when his offer to curtail processing errors is good for only one-fifth of Texas’ 3.3 million food-stamp recipients. Keel also chided Health and Human Services Commission officials for seeking help last summer from former deputy commissioner Gregg Phillips’ company, though they ignored for nearly two years a similar offer by a Plano firm already on contract. Earlier this month, The Dallas Morning News reported that Phillips, who played a major role in the state’s botched privatization of eligibility screening for assistance programs, is making money trying to help Texas fix the problems that resulted…”
• Human Services to lay off 228 workers, By Mary Vorsino, March 30, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “The state Department of Human Services will lay off nearly half of its 517 workers who process applications for government benefits and will shut down 31 eligibility offices statewide under a cost-cutting plan set to go into effect June 30. The plan, which has been strongly opposed by advocates for the poor and several lawmakers, is expected to save about $8 million and DHS officials say it will actually speed up wait times by allowing people to apply on-line and over the phone, congregating workers in two main offices and streamlining workloads. The plan comes at a time when DHS is seeing increases in requests for Medicaid, cash assistance, food stamps and child care subsidies as families struggle to make ends meet. The increase in applications has meant significantly longer backlogs in processing requests for help…”
• Disputed welfare practices don’t hold up in court, By Jon Murray, March 31, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “When Gov. Mitch Daniels pulled the plug in October on a privatization contract that was the cornerstone of an aggressive welfare services modernization plan, he said it simply didn’t work. But the arrangement’s inefficiency, lost paperwork and wrongly denied benefits weren’t the only problems. A judge has ruled that parts of the modernization push also violated the law. Two recent rulings from a Marion County judge and a third from Clay County delivered a new slap to the state’s welfare services agency over several practices, including the handling of denials for some benefits and appeals for others. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration is forging ahead by testing a new ‘hybrid’ plan in some places. In the meantime, dozens of counties still operate with vestiges of the aborted modernization attempt — and with one of the two disputed practices…”

• Florida Senate pushes Medicaid reform, By Marc Caputo and Steve Bousquet, April 1, 2010, Miami Herald: “The state Senate shifted rightward Wednesday by pushing plans to give private companies more tax money to manage prison operations and healthcare for the poor. As debate over the state budget began in earnest, the one-two privatization punch drew opposition from Democrats. They managed to soften the blow to the public prison system — job cuts had been on the table — but failed to halt a sweeping change for the Medicaid program that Republicans proposed in reaction to President Barack Obama’s signing of the new healthcare reform law. In the end, senators unanimously adopted a budget proposal, backing off a controversial plan to save money by opening a privately run prison and closing two state-run lockups. The Senate budget would allow the 2,200-bed, $113 million private Blackwater River prison in Milton to open Nov. 1. It would be run by the GEO Group and its cellblocks filled with inmates from other state-run prisons. The House has not yet approved a budget proposal…”
• Florida’s Republican leaders push for privatized Medicaid program, By Jim Ash, March 31, 2010, Fort Myers News-Press: “The same Republican leaders who vowed to maintain an open and transparent legislative process are pushing a last-minute plan on the Senate floor that would completely rewrite, and essentially privatize, the state’s $18 billion Medicaid program. An amendment by Sens. Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Joe Negron, R-Port St. Lucie, would ask the federal government for permission to cap the program in exchange for increasing eligibility to another 2 million recipients. Medicaid recipients would get vouchers for private insurance, taking the state ‘out of the check-writing business,’ Negron said. Some would also see co-payments and deductibles. ‘It’s a way to treat people in the Medicaid program with the same dignity and respect as other people,’ Negron said…”

• Indiana agency begins hybrid welfare plan rollout, By Ken Kusmer (AP), January 26, 2010, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indiana’s human services agency said Tuesday the state’s third try at effectively enrolling and keeping people on food stamps and other welfare benefits has begun rolling out, but one affected caretaker said the frustrations keep mounting. The Family and Social Services Administration said it has begun implementing what it’s calling a hybrid welfare intake system, involving caseworkers and some automation, in 10 southwestern Indiana counties. It follows the agency’s aborted bid to turn over highly automated welfare intake to private vendors - a plan designed to replace an outdated, paper-based casework system - that remains in 33 counties…”
• Indiana agency begins hybrid welfare plan rollout, By Eric Bradner, January 26, 2010, Evansville Courier and Press: “The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration rolled out its pilot ‘hybrid’ system for processing welfare applications in a swath of 10 Southwestern Indiana counties on Tuesday. The rollout means the state’s human services agency now has three ways of handling applications for Medicaid, food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families operating simultaneously. The hybrid pilot is now in place in Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Warrick and Vanderburgh counties. The recently abandoned ‘modernization’ effort, which severely restricted face-to-face interaction with agency workers and instead had those seeking benefits apply online or by phone, remains in 49 counties.

Hybrid welfare system to roll out, By Ken Kusmer (AP), January 19, 2010, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indiana’s human services agency is expected to roll out its hybrid welfare intake program, aimed at correcting problems that arose when it tried to privatize the system, in 10 southwestern counties next week. The Family and Social Services Administration had said that it would roll out the hybrid system in the counties around Evansville in January, and last week spokesman Marcus Barlow said the change probably would occur during the last week of the month. Documents obtained by The Journal Gazette in December indicated Vanderburgh County - an early participant in privatization in 2007 and a squeaky wheel in bringing problems to light - was being considered as the first area to launch the new system. Under the hybrid system, which follows the state’s aborted effort to turn welfare intake over to private vendors, many state and private caseworkers will shift from call centers into local offices to give people more personal contact with those making decisions about their food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits…”

• U.S. food stamp official: State could be aiding more Texans, By Corrie MacLaggan, January 12, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Texas could be providing food stamps to 650,000 more people and could increase the amount of federal money it receives for the program each year from $4 billion to $5 billion if the state increased its participation rate to the national average, according to President Barack Obama’s top food stamp official. But Texas officials, who are struggling with a strained application system, say increasing participation is not their goal…”
• Official: Food-stamp application flubs hurt hungry Texas families, By Robert T. Garrett, January 13, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Texas’ botched experiment with privatization of welfare application screening has caused “a five-year slide” in how fast and accurately the state handles food stamp applications, the federal government’s top food and nutrition official says. Now, the problems are punishing middle-class Texans who’ve recently lost jobs and are seeking government help - many, for the first time, says U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon…”
• Official: Texas has worst-ranked food stamp program, By Gary Scharrer, January 12, 2010, Houston Chronicle: “Texas has the worst performing food stamp program in the nation, the federal director for food assistance told state officials here Tuesday. It ranks last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications and also does a poor job getting eligible low-income people to apply, said Kevin Concannon, a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary, in an earlier meeting with reporters. And because Texas does not even come close to the national average in enrolling those eligible, grocery retailers like H-E-B and Randalls are missing out on nearly $1 billion a year in food sales, he said…”

• Foster care news good and bad, By Paul Hammel, December 15, 2009, Omaha World-Herald: “While fewer Nebraska children were in foster care in 2008 and a record number of foster kids were adopted, the percentage of children who re-enter the system after being returned to family members was on the rise. And there are serious concerns about the lack of drug treatment for parents and the state’s move to privatize service delivery to kids in out-of-home care. Those are the good news-bad news highlights of the 2008 annual report by the Nebraska Foster Care Review Board, which was released today…”
• Report: Percent of children returning to foster care increasing, By JoAnne Young, December 15, 2009, Lincoln Journal Star: “There was good news in 2008 about children in foster care. The number of children dropped to 4,620, compared to 5,043 the year before. And 572 — 100 more than the year before — found permanent adoptive homes. But in the middle of the good news was a disturbing trend: The percentage of children who returned to foster care increased to 41 percent in 2008, according to the Foster Care Review Board’s 2008 annual report. The report highlighted the need for more funding for mental health services for kids traumatized because they are removed from their homes and parents and then moved around in foster care…”

• Overhaul of state welfare will debut next month, By Will Higgins and Robert Annis, December 14, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “The long-awaited overhaul of Indiana’s ailing welfare program will begin next month in the southern part of the state, a step key to salvaging a system hobbled by a failed attempt at privatization. The new system of delivering food stamps, Medicaid and temporary assistance for needy families will debut in 10 counties in the Evansville area, said Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, the state agency responsible for dispensing benefits. FSSA released details Sunday of what it calls a ‘hybrid plan’ that will keep the best aspects of the automated system but add more personal contact between caseworkers and clients. The agency said the changes will improve state oversight of the private portions of the system, keep better tabs on documents submitted by clients and move more workers from call centers to county welfare offices…”
• FSSA to test hybrid welfare system, By Ken Kusmer (AP), December 14, 2009, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: “Under fire for problems since it automated and privatized its welfare intake system, Indiana’s human services agency plans to introduce more face-to-face contact with caseworkers and make other improvements in January in 10 southwestern counties. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration released details Sunday of what it is calling a ‘hybrid plan’ that will keep the best aspects of the automated system but add more personal contact between caseworkers and clients. The agency said the changes will improve state oversight of the private portions of the system, keep better tabs on documents submitted by clients and move more workers from call centers to county welfare offices…”
• Hybrid welfare rollout nearing, By Niki Kelly, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Ten counties in southern Indiana will serve as a pilot for a new hybrid welfare delivery system that will start sometime in January, the Family and Social Services Administration announced Sunday. But Allen County and other areas affected by the failed modernization effort will have to wait for improvements…”

Companies still key to welfare fix, By Angela Mapes Turner, December 2, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indiana’s proposed fix to its welfare system includes handing the bulk of supervisory duties back to state employees. But those employees number only a third of what they did before the state’s failed attempt to privatize welfare processing, and the preliminary plan appears at odds with a recent federal caution against privatization. Documents obtained by The Journal Gazette outline the state’s hybrid plan to fix the system. The draft outline indicates Vanderburgh County - an early participant in privatization in 2007 and a squeaky wheel in bringing problems to light - might be first to launch a new system in January. According to the documents, Indiana’s plan continues to rely heavily on private, for-profit companies, despite a caution from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the federally funded food stamp program, warning states against such contracts…”

Feds to states: Don’t privatize food stamps, By Corrie MacLaggan, December 1, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “Six years after Texas embarked on an ambitious social services outsourcing project that hit major problems, the federal agency in charge of food stamps is warning states against such efforts. ‘These projects encountered severe problems in meeting critical performance standards and many eligible (food stamp) applicants have suffered as a result,’ says a Nov. 20 letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the states. ‘We do not support furtherance of such projects, and believe that they put public funds and our clientele at risk.’ The warning comes as the food stamp program is experiencing a recession-related surge across the country - and as Texas is negotiating a new contract with a private company that is already handling some aspects of enrollment. State officials said they don’t expect the contract to be affected. The message from federal officials to the states: We know these are tough times, but privatization isn’t the answer…”

Out-of-home foster care reform kicks off, By JoAnne Young, November 9, 2009, Lincoln Journal Star: “Child welfare’s view of the world is shifting. The providers of foster care - and other services for families and children who need help in so many areas of their lives - are undergoing a complete culture change. They are learning to think in new ways. The work has been hard, really hard, with plenty of challenges. Recently, one of the six private agencies with which the state contracted to provide foster care and family services, pulled out - deciding not to sign the contract. In the final days, the Alliance for Children and Family Services, one of two contractors in the central service area, said it just wasn’t financially feasible…”

• Food stamp workers work longer hours and get less training, By Corrie MacLaggan, October 29, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “As Texas begins hiring hundreds of food stamp workers to help erase an application backlog that has left families waiting months for aid, no one expects the problems to disappear any time soon. The new state workers are entering a system in crisis. They’ll have far fewer experienced colleagues than they would have five years ago. Training is shorter. Mentoring has mostly fallen by the wayside. And employees are working an average of 13 hours of overtime per week - which, in some cases, is mandatory…”
• Judge orders Indiana to improve Food Stamps processing, By Ken Kusmer (AP), October 28, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “A federal judge has ordered Indiana’s partially privatized welfare intake system to speed up decisions on food stamp applications, but the state has a year to meet its first target. U.S. District Judge Robert Miller issued a preliminary injunction last week in a class-action lawsuit covering every food stamp applicant in Indiana over the past 19 months. The order represents the latest setback to one of nation’s most ambitious welfare privatization efforts and came just days after Gov. Mitch Daniels fired vendor IBM Corp. from its $1.34 billion contract to lead the project…”

• Welfare ‘hybrid’ to emerge, By Angela Mapes Turner, October 18, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “More than $360 million into the state’s largest private contract, Indiana faces uncertainty about how it will rebuild from its failed welfare privatization attempt and what it has actually gained. The state’s Family and Social Services Administration also faces the task of replacing its dinosaur of a core computer system down the road - a cost that had not even been included in the IBM contract. Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Thursday he was firing IBM Corp. as administrator of the state’s food stamp, Medicaid and welfare benefits and that the state would assume IBM’s role at the helm of a ‘hybrid’ system…”
• Daniels, GOP could face welfare deal fallout, By Mike Smith (AP), Chicago Tribune: “Democrats to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels: We told you so. The gloating was to be expected after Daniels announced Thursday that he was canceling a contract with IBM Corp. to automate applications for food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare benefits. The project introduced in the spring of 2007 had been fraught with complaints of lost documents, delays in approving benefits, lengthy call hold times and severed eligibility for Medicaid and food stamps. Federal officials had closely scrutinized the state’s performance, and the state had put IBM on notice that it needed to improve…”
• Welfare critics await new system, By Eric Bradner, October 18, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “A human touch could have eased the anguish of Omega Young, an Evansville woman who fought for six months with Indiana’s welfare agency to have her Medicaid benefits reinstated at the same time she was fighting a losing battle with cancer. No one took note in time to help Young, whose benefits were approved March 2, the day after she died. But her struggle was vindicated when Gov. Mitch Daniels decided last week to cancel the state’s 10-year, $1.34 billion contract with IBM Corp. that created the modernized system she tried so hard to navigate, said her sister, Christal Bell. ‘She needed all the help she could get,’ Bell said. ‘But there are other people who need help, too.’ Now, thanks in part to Young’s story, others who face hardships such as disease, poverty and disability might get the personal assistance they need from Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration under a newly-announced hybrid system…”
• Firms downplay local impact of canceled IBM contract, By Dave Stafford, October 18, 2009, Anderson Herald Bulletin: “Companies in Anderson and Daleville that expanded two years ago when IBM won a contract to privatize Indiana’s welfare system downplayed local effects after the state canceled the deal. An IBM call center in Daleville and an Affiliated Computer Services facility at the Flagship Enterprise Park had expanded as part of an IBM pledge to create 1,000 jobs in exchange for getting a $1.34 billion contract to handle welfare applications and provide other services for the Family and Social Services Administration…”

• The lesson to learn from failure of IBM contract, Editorial, October 21, 2009, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: “Gov. Mitch Daniels’ cancellation of IBM’s $1.37 billion contract to deliver welfare services will undoubtedly win praise from Republicans (he realized a mistake and corrected it) and criticism from Democrats (there was evidence to end it a lot sooner). There is some truth in both those positions, but the governor should be given credit for the honesty of his announcement. Daniels said it wasn’t a lack of resources that made the experiment in privatization fail. Nor was it a lack of effort…”
• Much to learn from state’s FSSA mistake, Editorial, October 18, 2009, South Bend Tribune: “There have been many concerns voiced throughout Gov. Mitch Daniels’ experiment in privatizing the Family and Social Services Administration intake process. Undoubtedly there will be many more in the months to come. But now, as Indiana pulls the plug on its $1.34 billion, 10-year contract with IBM to deliver crucial welfare services, the top priority must be the transition back to a state-operated system…”
• Welcome move to fix privatization of welfare, Editorial, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Last Thursday, after almost three years of missteps that interrupted vital services for some, Gov. Mitch Daniels admitted the welfare-privatization concept didn’t work and canceled the contract with IBM. The governor deserves credit for owning up to the failure. His persistence in getting problems fixed in the Bureau of Motor Vehicles suggests he will now redouble efforts to improve services provided through the Family and Social Services Administration. We wish him only success…”
• Back to the state for personal touch, Editorial, October 17, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Large, troubling questions remain about the fate of a public assistance system that affects one in every six Hoosiers. How will the transition back to the state from a failed privatization effort be accomplished? Will IBM express its ire over losing a $1.34 billion contract in the form of legal action, or a threat of legal action serious enough to prompt an expensive buyout? How long will it take, and at what cost, to clean up a mess that has cost countless elderly, poor, sick and disabled people vital services and imperils countless more?…”
• Local lawmakers got FSSA job done, By Mizell Stewart III, October 18, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ move to cancel the contract that privatized many of the intake functions of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration is a victory for benefit recipients and Southwestern Indiana lawmakers alike. The move was a disaster by nearly every account, notably because it turned much of the work of determining benefit eligibility over to call centers and Web sites. That’s fine for doing business in most instances, but it didn’t work at all for the poor, frail and elderly…”
• Cancelled contract, Editorial, October 18, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was right to cancel the state’s deal with IBM Corp., for privatizing the welfare application process. But let us not kid ourselves: the problems will not be corrected overnight. Daniels will be returning welfare application operations to the control of the Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration. However, remember that before privatization, applications were the responsibility of the state agency and it was a mess, fraught with errors and fraud. It was that way for years before Daniels came to office. It was that poor record of performance that led Daniels, an advocate of privatizing government services and assets, to seek a business-run welfare program. Unfortunately, that private system came with its own flaws…”

Indiana axes welfare contract with IBM, By Mary Beth Schneider and Bill Ruthhart, October 16, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Calling it an endeavor that ‘just did not work,’ Gov. Mitch Daniels on Thursday canceled Indiana’s 10-year, $1.34 billion contract with IBM to deliver welfare services. In its place, Indiana will develop a hybrid structure that keeps some elements of the modernized welfare system, Daniels said, while restoring the best of the past system: personal contact. The decision marked a major setback for the governor, who has championed efforts to privatize some areas of state government, and a rare admission that — this time — his critics were right. As he announced his decision, Daniels thanked those who had raised concerns that the system resulted in too many errors and too many people waiting too long for help they desperately needed. ‘In many respects, they were right,’ he said. ‘The system wasn’t working, and it wasn’t getting better, despite best efforts.’ Critics say it was a lesson that could have been learned long before Thursday’s announcement. Texas, for instance, pulled the plug in 2007 on a similar welfare privatization effort after thousands of people lost benefits they deserved. Critics here had argued that Texas had tried to do too much too fast, and said a slower rollout in Indiana would ease in the new system. The state’s rollout, though, was never completed…”

• Feds nix welfare data use in hiring, By Ken Kusmer (AP), October 14, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Indiana’s human services agency considered letting a private contractor use the state’s welfare database to screen potential employees until federal food stamp officials told them it was inappropriate and not allowed. Documents provided to The Associated Press under an open records request show that Affiliated Computer Services Inc. sought permission from the Family and Social Services Administration to use the state’s welfare data to screen job applicants for fraud or other welfare program violations. The U.S. Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the food stamp program, objected when it learned from FSSA in July that the state agency might share the data…”
• Fixing the welfare fix, By Eric Bradner, October 13, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Critics of Indiana’s $1.34 billion contract to modernize the state’s human services agency on Tuesday called for a new approach that puts a premium on face-to-face interaction between welfare applicants and caseworkers. Pressure is mounting on Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration to either produce positive results or move toward altering or canceling the 10-year contract with a team led by Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. and Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. However, with the new system implemented in Indiana Family and Social Services Administration offices in 59 of Indiana’s 92 counties, changing paths would be a messy process. Those who have called for the contract to be canceled have left one major question unanswered: What happens next?…”
• State cancels IBM/FSSA contract, By Eric Bradner, October 13, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Saying the idea looked good on paper but did not work in practice, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced this afternoon that the state has abandoned its attempts to modernize its welfare delivery system. Daniels said he informed Armonk, N,Y.-based IBM Corp., the lead vendor in the 10-year, $1.34 billion deal, that he is canceling the contract. ‘It was a concept that looked user-friendly and efficient on paper, but sometimes those things don’t work when you take them out on the road,’ Daniels said. However neither Daniels nor officials in Indiana’s FSSA were able to provide many details…”

• Federal officials: Texas needs food stamp czar, By Corrie MacLaggan, October 6, 2009, Austin-American Statesman: “Federal officials say Texas should appoint a food stamp czar to take charge of fixing the application backlogs and high error rates plaguing the program. ‘All states are feeling the pinch right now because of the economic recession, but I’m not aware of any state that is having it to the degree that Texas is,’ said William Ludwig, a Dallas-based regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. Ludwig, who rarely gives interviews, oversees food stamps for Texas and four other states. He attributed the state’s problems last week to a “whole series of missteps, mismanagement over the last four years,” starting with thousands of state workers getting pink slips in advance of a massive privatization effort…”
• Too many Texans are waiting too long for food stamps, Editorial, October 7, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “It is scandalous that Texas is letting so many of its residents go hungry when the resources exist to feed them. But those resources - food stamps - are being processed at a snail’s pace because the state has not been able to get its act together. Texans deserve a better, more compassionate solution than state leaders have proposed so far. The massive backlog that has left low-income families hungry and waiting for weeks and months for government food assistance has reached a critical level. In September 2009, Texas processed 58.6 percent of new applications on time…”

• State’s social services suffering, panel learns, By Mary Beth Schneider, September 25, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Too many errors and delays and too little face-to-face contact with clients are hampering Indiana’s privatized welfare delivery service, the state acknowledged Friday to lawmakers. Despite those persistent problems, Anne Murphy, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, told the bipartisan State Budget Committee that no decision has been made on whether to end the $1.34 billion, 10-year contract that Indiana has with an IBM-led group to manage food stamps, Medicaid and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program…”
• Indiana welfare problems linger, budget committee told, By Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, September 25, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Significant problems remain in Indiana’s welfare application system, and no decision has been made about whether to sever a controversial contract with the private firm handling the work, a key state official told lawmakers Friday. Some parts of the system have improved since Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered the private consortium - which includes IBM and Affiliated Computer Services - to fix problems or face losing a 10-year, $1.3 billion contract, said Anne Murphy, secretary of the state Family and Social Services Administration…”
• Political, geographical lines divide welfare solutions, By Eric Bradner, September 26, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration is working to improve its human services agency’s troubled attempt to modernize, and state lawmakers are grappling with how and where their pressure can be applied best. But geographic and political differences have made it impossible for all parties to agree on an approach that is suitable statewide. In some pockets, such as Evansville, frustration with the new system has reached a boiling point. Some lawmakers say the project is hopeless and the best choice is to cut losses and abandon it. In other places, such as Indianapolis, the changes have not been rolled out yet. In other areas, the new system is working relatively well, according to Indiana Family and Social Services Administration officials…”

Companies face heat on welfare modernization, By Eric Bradner, August 12, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Southwestern Indiana lawmakers, hospitals and social services agencies ramped up the pressure on the companies hired to modernize Indiana’s welfare agency during a closed-door meeting earlier this week. Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Anne Murphy brought officials from IBM Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services Inc., the companies working on a 10-year contract that now tops $1.3 billion, to Tuesday’s meeting so they could hear from those who are affected by the problems plaguing the new system…”

Glitches mar Indiana’s effort to outsource social services, By William M. Bulkeley, August 12, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Processing of welfare, food-stamp and Medicaid claims in Indiana was plagued with difficulties when the state outsourced the system to International Business Machines Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services Inc. two years ago. The problem hasn’t been resolved since then. ‘There’s a myriad of problems,’ said Anne Murphy, secretary of the state’s Family and Social Services Administration. ‘Error rates are too high. We’re not processing claims within federal guidelines.’ Naomi Mundy, a 59-year-old homemaker, said it took 15 months after she developed melanoma to get Indiana to pay her health-care benefits under Medicaid because of outsourcing snafus…”

• Joy, skepticism greet IBM’s plan, By Angela Mapes Turner, July 24, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “State lawmakers and social service providers welcome Indiana’s extensive plan to correct its failing welfare system.  But they aren’t convinced it provides the right guidance for private welfare vendor IBM Corp. to resolve widespread problems…”
• IBM to add humanity to welfare, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 24, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “IBM Corp.’s 362-page plan to fix problems with Indiana’s privately run welfare system calls for providing more face-to-face help and no longer “forcing clients to self-service channels” such as telephone call centers and online applications.  The plan, obtained by The Associated Press, also describes myriad mechanical and human errors such as an automatic call distributor that “inappropriately fails” about twice a month, losing all telephone calls in progress and infighting within IBM’s coalition of partners…”

Privatizing welfare means more fall through cracks, critics say, By Will Higgins, July 20, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Omega Young lay in her hospital bed, her body wracked with disease. The cancer that started in her ovaries had spread to her kidneys, breast and liver. She’d lost her appetite to the chemotherapy; she weighed 98 pounds. Then came more bad news: After a botched round of telephone tag with welfare officials, the state of Indiana pulled the plug on her Medicaid benefits and food stamps…”

Schwarzenegger proposes private, centralized system for public assistance eligibility, By Michael Rothfield, July 16, 2009, Los Angeles Times: A proposal that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been pushing in closed-door budget talks would tie the state, with little oversight or review, into a multibillion-dollar computer system likely to be run by the private sector to enroll low-income Californians in welfare, food stamp and healthcare programs.  A draft of the plan obtained by The Times shows that Schwarzenegger would replace existing county-run processes, which use four different computer systems across the state, with a single one. Administration officials say the new Internet-based system would allow them to save money on overhead and spend more on recipients…”

• Medicaid problems swell in new system, By Angela Mapes Turner, July 12, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indiana’s nearly 2-year-old experiment with a privatized welfare system appears to be failing. The backlog of pending Medicaid applications has ballooned in counties where welfare is handled by private contractors. From May 2008 - after the most recent wave of counties joined the new system - to December 2008, pending cases increased 86 percent. In counties working under the old system, the backlog increased only 16 percent, according to a Journal Gazette analysis of state data…”
• No Plan B for welfare contractors, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 12, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Indiana welfare officials considering canceling the state’s privately run welfare system have no backup plan in place, and critics say it will be hard to undo the privatization of 1,500 state case workers more than two years ago…”
• State prods contractor into action, By Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier and Press: “Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration is using a carrot-and-stick strategy to try to pressure contractors hired to modernize the state’s welfare agency into producing better results…”
• The welfare privatization debacle, Editorial, July 12, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Gov. Mitch Daniels likes to say that he inherited ‘the worst welfare system in the nation.’ But two extensive reviews of data by The Journal Gazette suggest it has grown worse under his watch. The latest shows staggering increases in Medicaid application backlogs in the counties where the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration turned eligibility processing over to IBM Corp…”

• $1B privatization deal at risk, By Will Higgins, July 8, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Nearly two years into the privatization of Indiana’s welfare system, state officials are considering scrapping it amid widespread concerns that include the mishandling of nearly one in five food-stamp cases.  State welfare officials acknowledge that in about three-quarters of those cases, eligible Hoosiers are being denied aid they should be receiving…”
• AP Exclusive: IBM on notice over Ind. welfare deal, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 7, 2009, Idaho Statesman: “Indiana’s privately run welfare project has so many problems that the state could start taking steps to cancel its $1.16 billion contract with IBM as early as this fall, a state official said Tuesday.  Secretary Anne Murphy of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration said she asked lead vendor IBM Corp. to submit a ‘corrective action plan’ as part of a process that could result in canceling the 10-year deal if promised improvements don’t occur by the end of September…”