Lawmakers hear update on Accenture contract Problems persist despite

By Corrie MacLaggan mailto:cmaclaggan@statesman.com
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, July 27, 2006

Despite some improvements in the state's system to enroll Texans in public assistance, many are still improperly being denied benefits, a House panel heard Wednesday from organizations that work closely with some of the 3 million Texans who receive food stamps, welfare and Medicaid.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission and Accenture LLP, the lead contractor in a state agreement worth more than $800 million over five years, have come under fire recently for the private company's call centers.

The contractor is enrolling recipients in the Travis County and Hays County pilot area; Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins this year delayed rolling out the system statewide.

The contractor is already handling statewide applications for children's Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The system "has real and urgent problems that require real and urgent solutions," said Carlos Uresti, a San Antonio Democrat and the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.

The most emotional testimony came when a Missouri City mother told the committee that the health insurance of her 9-year-old son, who has special needs, was inexplicably canceled.

"We need for you to really look and understand that it's the children here that we're sacrificing," Lorna Harvey, holding back tears, told the panel.

Problems with the eligibility system, one of several components of the contract with Accenture, include long wait times and inadequate training of customer service representatives.

Hawkins said other components of the contract, including the maintenance of TIERS, the computer backbone of the enrollment system, are mainly going well. He told legislators that he'd give the contractor an 'A' grade for those efforts. But for the eligibility system, which involves closing some offices where Texans apply for public assistance and taking applications by phone, mail, fax and Internet?

Incomplete, he said. (That's the best he could come up with?)

CHIP enrollment has continued to decline since the Texas Access Alliance, Accenture's group, took over the program in November. It's about 300,000, down from 500,000 in 2002.

Representatives from Accenture, which has received about $103 million so far for all aspects of its state contract, attributed some of the problems with its work to CHIP.

"We are working hard to make it easy for the people of Texas to receive services for which they qualify," said Randy Willis, managing director for delivery excellence with the USA Government Operating Unit of Accenture.

"We are not where we want to be . . . but we are seeing progress."

But Barbara Best, Texas executive director of the Children's Defense Fund, a national child advocacy organization, said she has been documenting recent cases of eligible children disenrolled from services because of processing errors. For example, some children who were denied services for being noncitizens are in fact citizens who have been receiving public assistance for years.

"I fear that these cases represent thousands more of families who never make it through the process," Best said.

A bipartisan group of 60 legislators earlier this month signed a letter asking Hawkins to cancel the contract with Accenture. The same week, a group of 30 Republican representatives indicated their support for the system.

The system has become a gubernatorial campaign issue.

"The privatization of Texas Health and Human Services has been a horrible waste of money," Democratic candidate Chris Bell said Wednesday. "The Accenture contract is just one example of the culture of corruption and corporate cronyism recommended by Comptroller (Carole Keeton) Strayhorn and signed into law by Governor Perry."

A spokesman for Strayhorn, an independent candidate who as comptroller is investigating the state's contract with Accenture, said that problems at the Health and Human Services Commission "are a direct result of this governor's failed leadership and misplaced priorities."

Independent candidate Kinky Friedman's campaign spokeswoman said that
letting a private company run the state's public assistance enrollment was "an experiment gone awry."

Robert Black, a campaign spokesman for Perry, said some wrinkles are to be expected in any major transition.

"But the governor still firmly believes that the reforms put in place by the legislature are the right way to go, that the state will see tremendous savings and that ultimately the consumers of these benefits are going to see much better service," he said.

cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548


Additional material by staff writer Jason Embry.


The story so far


The state hired the Texas Access Alliance, a private consortium headed by Accenture LLP, to run a call-in system for Texans to apply for Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits. Four call centers are set to replace some benefits offices under the contract, which originally was projected to cost $899 million and lead to the elimination of 2,900 state jobs.

Venting concerns over public aid

* A pilot program began in Travis and Hays counties in January. The system was supposed to go statewide later this year, but that plan was put on hold because of problems.

* Customers have complained of long waits, problems getting benefits and incorrect information from Accenture.

* The cost of the contract and the number of jobs that will be eliminated have been reduced because of the problems.

*State officials had projected $646 million in savings through the plan.


Officials said Wednesday that they think 'the savings expectations will be satisfied.'