The state’s defective welfare computer system is still having problems more than a year after it went online, and it may take at least another year before it’s running smoothly. At least there finally seems to be a serious effort underway to fix the problems.
The one-year anniversary of the Colorado Benefits Management System came and went Sept. 1 with Colorado and the rest of the nation riveted on the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Now, attention is refocused on the system, which processes food stamps, Medicaid and other assistance, because many of the 1,000-plus hurricane evacuees who fled to Colorado depend on the system to process their benefits. We hope it’s up to the task. We also hope state officials won’t, as some fear, work around the system to give Hurricane Katrina victims priority over other needy people in Colorado.
Since it went online last year, flaws in the system and poor management have resulted in delays for people who need assistance. Currently, a court-ordered unit for processing emergency applications within five days is failing to do its job in a timely way. Advocates for needy people have asked a state judge to appoint a unit overseer. That should be done.
Elizabeth Arenales, an attorney with the Law and Policy Center, said the problems with the emergency processing unit are leaving people at risk of going hungry, losing their homes or not getting medical care. Lawyer Ed Kahn, who’s been heavily involved with the problem, says the system continues to designate eligible people as ineligible, so “the health care provider often doesn’t provide the visit or the pharmacy doesn’t provide the drugs.” Kahn says that “problems with the system still affect hundreds if not thousands of people.”
Gilpin County Commissioner Jeanne Nicholson, a member of the Governor’s CBMS Steering Committee, believes it will take another year “before we breathe a sigh of relief and say, ‘OK, we think most of the glitches are worked out of the system.”‘ But she and state officials say they are moving forward.
We’re happy for the progress, but we’re in the second year of using a flawed system, and the sense of urgency about fixing it must be intensified.
