T E X A S S T A T E E M P L O Y E E S U N I O N

MAY 15, 2006

NEWS Bulletin

Call centers on hold as air goes out of IEES bubble

MAY 4: HHSC announces the cancellation of layoffs plus retention pay, more positions

HHSC responded to calls from TSEU & many legislators with an announcement that:

The disastrous roll-out of the call center plan in Travis and Hays counties magnified the already widespread doubts about the program.

At least 30 state legislators have signed one of the several letters to state officials calling for a moratorium on roll-out steps, and for investigations of the Accenture contract.

HHSC has been forced to put the whole plan on hold.

May 10: New “Business Process” plan moves all work back to local offices.

The near-complete stand-down of the call centers is laid out in the “Interim Business Processes for the New Integrated Eligibility System.”

Some of the key points are:

There will be no reductions in eligibility staffing for at least the next twelve months. HHSC will add 1000 additional state eligibility employees to the previously announced total of about 2900 after full implementation of the new system. The announcement says that there are currently 4800 eligibility employees in the system, so a future total of 3900 means a reduction of about 900 by full implementation.

HHSC will begin a program of bonuses to convince current employees to stay. State employees will be assigned to the Midland call center to make sure that callers get accurate information.

No new cases will be processed through the San Antonio call center.

TAA contractor staff will get new training because they have been unable to give accurate information to callers.

“All work in progress and any new applications for requests for assistance submitted prior to May 10, 2006 will be handled through TLM to the appropriate office or customer care center. However, no work will be returned to the vendor.”

All applications and redeterminations for Food Stamps, TANF, Adult Medicaid, etc will be processed at local HHSC offices.

Some TAA/contractor staff will be assigned to local HHSC offices to enter data into a work log and perform similar functions. It is not clear what other work the contractor will be doing.

WHAT IT ALL MEANS:

Problems with the TIERS/IEE/TAA/Call Center plan are not minor start-up bugs. They show the plan does not & will not work.

The State of Texas should not continue to throw good money after bad by continuing to fund the Accenture contract. Accenture is not doing the work they were hired to do. When state employees can’t do our jobs, we get fired. The same should be true for this Bermuda based corporation that is expecting pocket almost $1 billion of Texas taxpayers’ money.

Instead of dumping more state money into the Accenture rat hole, HHSC should hire and train state employees to staff the local offices and rebuild an eligibility system that works.

WHAT TO DO NOW:

Push every co-worker to join the union. This is a major victory, but there is more work to do. The ones who sat back because they thought it was hopeless need to help make the victory complete by joining now.

Contact your state representative & senator ASAP.

Tell them: “My name is _________. I vote in your district. I am calling to ask you to stop the Health and Human Services call center plan. It is a waste of taxpayer money and it destroys services for Texans. We are in a staffing crisis at HHSC. We need your help to hire more staff to replace the hundreds of state employees who have left. What will you do to get HHSC to hire more staff & stop the call center implementation?”