Published: August 02, 2008 06:58 pm         

Tribune-Star Editorial: Fixing state welfare system an urgent need

TERRE HAUTE — A working mom should not have to miss work, three times, waiting to speak with state welfare staffers on the phone.

Her son, a victim of a violent crime in Vigo County, no longer has health insurance and requires medical treatment. Yet the privatized makeover of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration has put this young boy on hold, awaiting help.

They’re not alone. People who receive Medicaid, food stamps and other welfare benefits are telling lawmakers and anyone willing to listen about a new system that loses their vital documents and leaves their telephone calls on hold for long periods of time.

Indiana’s old system of handling an ever-increasing number of welfare cases needed fixed, not just changed. Sadly, the replacement model is broken, too.

In late 2006, the state hired a vending team led by IBM Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services Inc. to process applications for a variety of public safety-net programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps. As a result, the former system in which recipients met face-to-face with welfare case workers has been largely replaced with call centers. Recipients now are being encouraged to apply via the Internet or telephone. The changeover started with a 12-county area and gradually reached 47 counties, including Vigo.

The significant numbers in that deal are the $1.16-billion, 10-year contract awarded to those private firms, and the 1.1 million Hoosiers — children, the elderly, the poor and the disabled — who receive welfare benefits.

Privatization of other Indiana facilities and services, meant to cut costs and add efficiency, has produced mixed results at the state prisons, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Indiana Toll Road. But this is different. Children in need of Medicaid assistance should not be left in unhealthy limbo while the FSSA tries to work the bugs out of this experiment. Delayed prescription approvals and food assistance holdups directly affect the lives of Hoosiers least able to cover those costs themselves. That’s unacceptable.

Thankfully, the rollout of the new program has been temporarily halted. The federal Food and Nutrition Service recommended Indiana delay any further implementation of welfare changes until the state improved the timeliness of processing applications, The Associated Press reported.

The state FSSA insists it is giving serious attention to the problems, but that sincerity and sense of urgency has yet to be proven to those who count on that agency most. Before this new automated system resumes its spread to the entire state, Gov. Mitch Daniels and state lawmakers should avoid election posturing over this issue and fix its deficiencies right away.