North Carolina's effort to replace its Medicaid claims system is now two years behind schedule and more than $200 million — or 74 percent — over the original budget.
The new Medicaid system, the biggest single state contract, was originally scheduled to start in August for a cost of $287 million, reports The N&O's Joe Neff.
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services say that the contractor, Computer Services Corp., or CSC, will bring the system online by July 2013 for $495 million. During that two-year delay, the state will also pay about $110 million for Medicaid claims processing to EDS, the company that has been processing Medicaid claims for 35 years.
So who at the state is in charge of this debacle? Why it's CSC's former lobbyist, DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler.
Read the full story from Saturday's N&O here.
Comments
I worked for the state medicaid office in the past
August 24, 2011 - 2:38pm — wideawakeEverything that was said above is correct. There is corruption involved here. There should be a full investigation. No one should benefit from a relationship with a vendor. I have seen in the State of NC that there are favorite vendors that get all the money and the deals even if they are more costly and the lesser choice.
missing it
June 22, 2011 - 10:13am — mom0714All you have to do is Google "NY Comptroller CSC Audit"...and you can google the 2006 or 2010 version and see that this was a failure waiting to happen. Then go to the Wake County Courthouse and look at the ACS complaint against HHS (07cv000978).
You have a system demonstrated "ready to fail" being implemented by the same group of State employees that ran the ACS project into the ground.
I take HUGE exception to Dan Stewart saying not to worry, the Feds will pay 90%. Hog wash!!! Where do you think the Feds get the $, Dan? Congress looking for ways to save $ and state's have the Federal VISA card on entitlements like Medicaid.
I work for Medicaid here in NC! The CSC folks aren't even allowed to talk directly with us. It goes through OMMIS and Angie Sligh. There is NO ONE HERE that has ever successfully procured and implemented such a system, anywhere. Where is the State's CIO?
The N&O story doesbn't even mention the >$200 million it will cost for EDS to run and upgrade their system while we wait for CSC to fail, and they will. Where is the common thread? Who has been in a leadership position there through all system failures?
Democtratic good old boy system still working
June 20, 2011 - 3:02pm — concerned53The common denominator here is Lanier Cansler. We lost all of this money because of 2 vendors that he was associated with and now we are increasing our contract by $200 million and 2 years. This sounds real fishy as this is a fiasco that has impacted the taxpayers big time. Perhaps a real thorough investigation should be done on how this decision was made and perhaps what money & influence were involved.