If patience is a virtue, then the people of Colorado must be feeling awfully good about themselves this week. Finally, after months of delays and false starts, we soon may learn precisely what is wrong with the state’s $200 million welfare benefits system and how to fix it.
It’s been a long, miserable road for residents who qualify for various forms of state-administered income assistance – Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, for example.
The system was launched eight months ago against the advice of experts – and immediately sputtered into chaos. It’s past time that Coloradans receive the help it was supposed to deliver.
Gov. Bill Owens asked Deloitte Consulting to study the problem and recommend solutions. The firm’s report is delayed, but it will be invaluable if it sets the state back on course. Once the findings are made public, Owens can take the bull by the horns and see that the recommendations are implemented.
Until now, there has been too much shirking of responsibility and finger-pointing, as detailed in Sunday’s Denver Post story. Everyone from the system’s developer – Electronic Data Systems – to the governor and heads of the two state agencies that administer the benefits programs have defended their performance. Still, the problems haven’t gone away. People are having their benefits mistakenly eliminated by the faulty system or are having problems proving their eligibility for government programs.
The governor hired Deloitte in March at a cost of $325,000 to figure out what’s wrong with the system, which went online last Sept. 1 fraught with problems, including processors without the speed or capacity to serve the nearly 500,000 Coloradans who receive state or federal benefits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture lambasted Colorado for holding up the processing of food stamp applications, and attorneys sued the state in an effort to hasten a resolution.
According to Owens’ spokesman, Dan Hopkins, Deloitte has attempted to get feedback from all 64 counties whose employees actually use the system.
Members of the legislature – particularly the heads of the health committees and members of the Joint Budget Committee who funneled more money to fix the flawed system this past legislative session – also deserve to weigh Deloitte’s findings.
Whatever the failures of Electronic Data Systems or the counties, ultimate responsibility for jump-starting the benefits system rests squarely with the state. We hope Deloitte’s report offers a sound blueprint for improvement and that the governor moves quickly to fix the problems.
