State may make contractor repay extra costs in system rollout

AUSTIN -- The Texas Health and Human Services Commission may force the contractor in charge of operating two major benefit programs to repay the state for unexpected costs it has faced in the rocky rollout of its new online eligibility system.

The Texas Access Alliance also could be penalized for failing to meet performance goals outlined in its contract, commission officials said Thursday.

Anne Heiligenstein, the deputy executive commissioner in charge of social services, told the Health and Human Services Commission Council that "it's very likely that we'll be taking appropriate action soon."

Citing technical and customer service concerns, the commission has twice delayed the rollout of a new computer system that lets people apply for benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families over the phone, online or in person.

Using the new system, the state plans to replace 99 of its 310 eligibility offices with four call centers run by the TAA, a group of companies led by the technology consulting firm Accenture.

The system was unveiled in January in Travis and Hays counties and was supposed to be implemented in 20 more Hill Country counties in late April. All 254 Texas counties are supposed to be using the new system by the end of the year.

It isn't clear when the commission will move ahead with the next phase of the rollout.
TAA spokeswoman Jill Angelo said the group of companies is working with the state to resolve the issues that have been raised.

The commission's legal staff is collecting information on the state's increased costs and will make a recommendation to Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins, spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said. The list, for example, could include the cost of sending state staff to train call center employees.

"Even once a recommendation is made, this can be a long process," she said. "Our primary focus remains on implementing immediate corrective actions to improve the project's performance."

The contractor already has missed out on $50 million in case processing fees it would have been
able to charge the state if the rollout had not been delayed, Heiligenstein said.

The TAA also may be penalized for not meeting performance standards outlined in its contract, Goodman said. For example, the contractor could be fined for exceeding a set call abandonment rate or for having hold times that are too long.

Hold times averaged more than 14 minutes in March, and 36 percent of calls were abandoned, meaning customers hung up or were disconnected. After the contractor increased the number of operators, hold times averaged less than a minute in April and less than 4 percent of calls were abandoned.

But the numbers have crept back up because the state began retraining all call center employees after a review found operators could not handle some types of questions and could not thoroughly search agency records.

"That's not an acceptable result," Goodman said, adding the TAA may need to adjust the training schedule so enough operators are on duty to handle calls.

The TAA also is in charge of processing applications for Texas' low-cost insurance program for children. More than 30,000 children have left the Children's Health Insurance Program rolls since December.

Those staff members also are being retrained and policy changes are being made to give families more time to pay an enrollment fee and provide information that's missing on their forms.

Heiligenstein insisted that no amount of planning could have prevented every problem with the new eligibility system because the project is so big and complicated. By solving the issues that have cropped up in the pilot area, it will be easier to implement the system in the rest of the state, she said.

But council member Kathleen Angel sounded less convinced.

"One would hope you wouldn't learn quite so much from a pilot," she said.