Human Services chief defends failed contract

By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

 

(Link: HERE)

 

AUSTIN — Lawmakers had some tough questions for the state's health and human services chief on Thursday about his decision to sever ties with a contractor hired to help make it easier for needy Texans to receive public benefits.

 

Members of the House human services committee wanted to know what went wrong with the state's $899 million contract with the Texas Access Alliance, a group of companies led by Bermuda-based Accenture LLP.

 

Albert Hawkins, head of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, announced Tuesday the agency was cutting ties with the contractor after efforts to re-negotiate the troubled contract failed.

 

"I've been frustrated to hear Accenture's bad and I'll agree Accenture was bad," said Rep. Patrick Rose, the committee's chairman. "But then what comes after Accenture's bad has been: 'But everything's fine.' I don't think our contracting quality control is fine."

 

Hawkins defended the 2005 contract, saying it included strong performance measures that let the state hold Accenture accountable for technical and operational problems that arose over the past 14 months.

 

The Texas Access Alliance was hired to help run a new state computer system that would let people apply for benefits such as food stamps or Medicaid over the phone, online or in person.

 

The project debuted in Travis and Hays counties in early 2006 and was supposed to be implemented in all 254 Texas counties by the end of the year. But technical and operational problems forced Hawkins to indefinitely delay the rollout last spring.

 

Problems also cropped up when the Texas Access Alliance took over processing applications for the Children's Health Insurance Program, the state's low-cost health insurance program for the children of the working poor.

 

The problems were so serious that Hawkins announced in December he was slashing the contract by more than $350 million and curtailing the responsibilities given to the group's employees.

 

But the state and company couldn't agree on the terms of the new contract, he said.

The state plans to sign short-term contracts with Accenture subcontractors to do some of the work over the next two months. Meanwhile, officials will decide what jobs should be done by state workers and what jobs can be outsourced.

 

Rose, a Democrat from Dripping Springs, said his committee wants to be closely involved in that process. He asked Hawkins to give them a list of lessons learned from the contract's failures and regular updates on decisions about the project's future.

 

"I think it would be a mistake for us to think that the Legislature doesn't need a larger role in monitoring and overseeing and maintaining quality control over the process," he said.

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Interesting

Presentation to the House Human Services Committee: Integrated Eligibility and Enrollment Contract - March 15, 2007

Athens Call Center News

State cancels Accenture contract

Company official: Athens center to remain open under new employer

Indiana Politics

Indiana is also in the throes (it appears) of privatizing......here's what was posted there:

Big Deal: Texas Ends Accenture Contract Early Amid Problems, Lack Of Savings

"'You suggest that this agency has not acted in good faith and has retreated from agreements we reached in December,' Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins wrote Monday in a letter to Accenture. 'This is incorrect. To the contrary, (the options Accenture offered) contradicted many of the agreements Accenture made with the state.'

"As the deal dissolves, Accenture spokesman Jim McAvoy said he doesn't expect either side to blame the other for what went wrong.

"'The state's position on funding wouldn't permit us to successfully operate the program,' McAvoy said.

Investigation?

Senators seek investigation of troubled social services contract

03/15/2007

By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON / Associated Press

I'm going to copy pieces of the above linked article, so I can comment on it (what is below is NOT the full article, that can be found by clicking the link above)...I've taken the liberty of BOLDING that information out of the article that jumped out at me:

"Nearly every state senator has signed a letter asking the inspector general of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to investigate the failed contract with the company hired to privatize the state's social services eligibility system. "

Good. I hope they do a thorough investigation into the relationships of those involved in this
mess. I'm telling you, as a "lay person" who has no inside information to any of this- SOMEONE is getting rich off this disaster.

The letter, signed by 30 of the 31 state senators, asks the inspector general to conduct an integrity review, and if warranted, a full-scale investigation of both the new computer system and the contract for running it.

I'd like to know which state senator DIDN'T sign the letter. If your DID- send him/her an email thanking them for doing what should have been done A LONG TIME AGO. A full scale investigation into TIERS ought to be quite eye opening to many people on the "outside". The amount of money spent on TIERS is beyond comprehension considering the product that is out there.

Accenture spokesman Jim McAvoy said the company will cooperate fully with the investigation. Commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said the agency will provide any information that is requested.

"It's hard to imagine that there's a document in the building that hasn't already been provided to every losing candidate for governor, the employees union and IBM's attorneys, but we'll keep the copy machine warmed up and ready to go," she added.

Well, at least Stephanie Goodman is keeping her sense of humor. I mean, she WAS trying to be funny, right? "every losing candidate for governor"? Ha ha ha ha ha......I mean, I'm sure Rick
HairPerry asked for information too, didn't he? Oh? He didn't care? I'm sorry. Wait, and "the employees union and IBM attorneys"? Yeah, so when a union full of employees wants to know what's going on and uses their right to see documents to ensure that this scam is put
out there- and the HHSC spokesperson has jokes. That's great. I wonder if she believes her own rhetoric? It's amazing that the same employees that Anne H says have important ideas and input are the employees represented in the public via a spokesperson who is so professional.

Austin American Statesman

I noticed that the blog was getting quite a few hits from the Austin American Statesman website today- and found where it was linked....you can see it HERE. (It's nothing big, but increases exposure, which is necessary to continue on with the goal of getting HHSC back to the level it used to be).....

Yesterday was a big news day!

Some Links for Today

Accenture, Texas say adios to outsourcing contract - Washington Technology, DC

Texas to Wind Down Outsourcing Deal with Accenture - Computer Business Review

Accenture, Texas Health and Human Services Commission Agree to End.... - Trading Markets

State ends ACCESS contract -Odessa American,TX

Accenture-ating the Positive - Texas Observer Blog

**If you come across any articles today that need to be posted, put the link in the comments!

Another Search you can do

If you want to read some of the other bloggers out there talking about the failure of the Accenture deal, you can click HERE.

Link Update

If you read here and have a blog that is not linked in the sidebar, please either email me or leave your blog address in the comments and I'll get it linked ASAP!

TIERS reflections

I was going back and reading some archives from April of last year- and came across these gems:

 

These were found in THIS post (under comments):

 

1st, a comment that was left by an Accenture employee (what a difference a year makes, no?):

 

Folks, sorry to break up the lovefest but the "entry level" workers at the San Antonio office are doing you job better than you are with less training. The problem is not that the data entry people can not work cases as fast as you revered state workers can, it is that TIERS is a slow and most of the time monotonous program that requires lots of time. I have talked with many, many of the state workers who have come to observe. Many of them were critical or, at least, wary of all these entry level people doing the work.

After a few short days they commented to me at how great of a job they were doing and that the entry level staff had a greater grasp of policy in the few short months that had been working, than many of the people in the offices. No telling what these entry level people will be like once they get the hang of the process.

One state worker said that the problems people are having on the floor are the same problems experienced by state people. Lucky for us, we have state workers and former state workers who work on the floor to answer policy questions and bring everyone up to speed.

So, for all of you smart and intelligent state workers who seem to think that the world can not revolve without your knowledge, get over it.

This is a pilot program, once more, one that is only several months old. Everyone is still coming up to speed with the ungodly program of TIERS.

It will take TAA time to fix what you, the collect state worker, spent years screwing up. Why do you think they privatized it?

 

And then this comment left by Fr. John who explains alot about TIERS:

 

Fr. John Whiteford said...

TIERS was not screwed up by HHSC workers. I was on a TIERS advisory committee before they signed the contract to develope the piece of crap system that they now have. They had field staff from every region in the state to provide feedback on what we needed in a new system. Problem was, they already knew what we needed, and just presented their ideas to us. We provided feedback to the extent that we could, but they weren't really interested in what we had to say. Then, as soon as they signed the new contract, they disbanded this committee, and so we never had a chance to provide feedback based on how the actual program worked.

This program was supposed to have been rolled out in 2001, they spent 300 million dollars on it, and it is a piece of crap. SAVERR, for all of its problems, is still a far faster, and more reliable system.

Those of us who have taken issue with the Accenture contract have never blamed the staff at Accenture for the problem. The problem is with a system that cannot work. I don't care how good the staff at accenture are, or get, they will not be able to save the state money with this system, because too many cooks are involved in determining eligibility, and if you had ever done interviews from start to finish (from taking the application, to the point of issuing the benefits, and all points in between) you would know why it is always worse to have more than one person involved in the interview process. It is too difficult to figure out what the previous person saw or did not see, when you are trying to figure out what the next step should be. It is better to have one person interview the client, and then do the follow up steps.

When I was a worker, and had to finish a case another worker had started, I generally had to call the client, and practically do another interview to make sure that the previous person didn't miss something, because in the old system, whoever actually certified the case was ultimately responsible for the case, regardless of what mis-steps anyone else might have made.

How then can you expect a HHSC worker to take a case from someone that they have never seen, and do not know, and trust the case work that they did. Either the worker will end up re-doing that work, or they will simply rubber stamp what the Accenture worker did. Neither alternative is an improvement on the old system.

Also, anyone who has ever done interviews will tell you that doing a face to face interview gives you a lot more information than doing one over the phobe, because people are much more comfortable lying over the phone than they are looking someone in the face.

At the end of the day, if we want quality cases that give people what they are actually eligible for, we should be doing face to face interviews.

In fact, doing occassional home interviews (like we used to do back in the day) gives you even more information than an in office interview can.

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To All State Representatives

This is an open letter to ALL Texas State Representatives:

TIERS DOES NOT WORK.....GO TO YOUR LOCAL OFFICES IN YOUR DISTRICTS. TALK TO THE WORKERS WHO WORK IN THOSE OFFICES- ESPECIALLY THE ONES WHO WORK CASES ON THE SAVERR PROGRAM- ASK them if that program works. ASK them why they have stayed on amongst the turmoil. TALK to the clients in your area. FEEL their frustration.

TIERS should only be put in a highly controlled environment- not one where it literally affects clients and their families. TIERS is not what the Executive Commissioner and his cronies are telling you. IT is not the "end all, be all". ASK the people in the field who know.

Please.

What now?

Final News Release Here:  http://www.cppp.org/files/3/news_releasefinal.pdf

 

We've been calling for this since it started, and now it's all beginning to unravel.  I attribute this cancellation (since Hawkins and Co. have proclaimed all this time how GREAT all this is) to the pressure the Union helped put on the Agency through their Legislative contacts.

 

Now, what will happen?

 

Potentially "re-bid" the job?  BAD IDEA.

 

Continue to rollout TIERS?  BAD IDEA.  Entirely TOO much money has been wasted on TIERS as it is.  Cut bait and run.  Convert all these cases back into SAVERR until a new system is "built" and WORKS.  Rebuild staffing.  Get rid of all these "chiefs" and let's get back to work  - with the quality that we used to have.  Re-vamp the "Upper Management" who refused to acknowledge the flaws until they were forced to.  Remember this- "Upper Management" have goals that do NOT include client services OR employees.  They do not care if you are or were a loyal employee.  They do not CARE that clients have gotten the shaft.  They do not CARE that the taxpayers in Texas have gotten this screw job.  Us, those in the front lines- those in the offices that have borne the brunt of this screwup from the beginning- WE do care. 

 

Write your local representative and tell them that this is NOT OVER.  Please!  There IS power in numbers.  The more attention we can bring to this the better.  Email reporters at various newspapers (maybe not in your town, if you are fearful)- OR, send ME your letter and where you want me to email it and I'll do it from MY "hhsc" email address.  Remember this fellow HHSC Employees- WE ARE ALL "HHSC EMPLOYEE".  We are the ONLY ones that can continue to push this.

 

And I've been waiting a long time to say this, but:

 

GOOD RIDDANCE ACCENTURE.

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More Links

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&Date=20070313&ID=6605843

http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2007/03/12/daily20.html

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=2658518&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Links about the Contract

http://waxahachiedaily.blogspot.com/2007/03/hhsc-texas-access-alliance-agree-to-end.html

 

http://pinkdome.com/archives/2007/03/boondoggle_be_d.html

 

http://texastoday.org/2007/03/13/texas-underhand-deal/

 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8NRCLGG0.html

 

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/14/14accenture.html

 

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/legislature/entries/2007/03/12/chris_bell_keeps_the_faith_twice_in_three_days.html

 

http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=14191277

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4625233.html

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Breaking News from TSEU

ACCENTURE CONTRACT DEAD?
Sources: announcement set for Tuesday, March 13

TSEU has received the word from several sources that Accenture and HHSC will jointly
announce on March 13 that the contract will be "unraveled", with each party "going its way."
The word is that Accenture is feeling pressure to do the job right including making the TIERS
system work and is balking at the cost.

Human Services might still not be on track

According to the sources, HHSC might put forward a plan to re-bid the contract rather than
concentrate on rebuilding the system we had, which actually worked until they started
dismantling it.

While this development goes a long way toward ending a wasteful and damaging boondoggle, it
does not by itself result in a restoration of quality human services eligibility. TSEU will continue
to call for implementation of our plan, which includes:

1. Terminate the Accenture contract.
2. Rebuild a functioning human services eligibility system.

A. Hire more staff: It would require less than 1000 additional positions to rebuild the staff
to the 2004 levels. Add these staff and re-evaluate staffing levels in 2009.

B. Rebuild a qualified staff:

1.) Create a program to bring skilled, tenured staff who have left back into the agency.
2.) Reverse the damage caused by the Job Search and Placement ( JSAP) program by
allowing all HHSC employees who accepted transfers under JSAP to return to their
original positions.
3.) Rebuild the training program for eligibility staff.
4.) Cancel the Convergys contract and rebuild effective human resources/personnel
services to support management and front-line staff.

C. Consider creative ways to enhance services. Ask front-line eligibility staff for ideas.

3. Integrate CHIP eligibility with children's Medicaid Eligibility in the state-operated
intake system.

HHSC already operates state-employee-staffed call centers in El Paso, Houston, Austin,
and San Antonio, and Dallas that do intake for Children's Medicaid. The CHIP and
Children's Medicaid programs are closely related: integrating eligibility would provide a
seamless, "one-stop" system in which a single qualified worker would directly enroll the
applicant in whichever program they are eligible for. This step would reduce costs and
increase accuracy and timeliness in providing these crucial services to Texas children.

4. Deploy a cost-effective, functional data system for human services eligibility.

A. Have a task force that is outside the HHSC structure and answerable to the Legislature
re-evaluate both the TIERS system and the SAVERR system to determine the systems'
present and potential functionality.

B. Move decisively on the findings of the study to either complete the development of
TIERS or cancel the project; to implement an upgrade of SAVERR , or to pursue a new
approach.

C. Suspend all input or conversion of cases into TIERS until the future of the system has
been decided and, if it is decided to keep TIERS, until the system is fully functional.

D. Seek and accept the input of front-line human services staff as part of all decision-making
and developmental steps to deploy a functional system.

FED AUDIT

Here's another comment...which is in line with the crazy decision to continuing to rollout TIERS:

 

Guess what? The feds audited hhsc and said IEE and Tiers is not working. The report is on the sao web page. Look at page 127. TIERS, 07-13 on page 126/136 PDF. www.sao.state.tx.us/reports/main/07-316.pdf

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Comment that is deserving of being posted

I thought the following comment was worthy enough to be on the page itself so everyone sees it........provides interesting food for thought:

 

Topics for an interesting Albert Hawkins hearing:

1. What about ethics charges filed by Chris Bell regarding Albert Hawkins' membership on the board of Texas Health Institute and their non-competitive award of state Health and Human Service dollars? Is there an outcome?

2. What about OIG report stating public funds were paid to contractors at DSHS to lobby? Are these groups still funded? Has anyone had to pay back the money?

3. What about allegations by OIG that records were altered by DSHS and their contractors? Has there been follow-up on this serious criminal allegation in the OIG report?

4. What about allegations of inside info on bids shared between DFPS and Providence in the outsourcing of CPS services? Has this been thoroughly investigated?

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More TEARS to come as TIERS spreads further into the state.......

I'm sure everyone got this- but I'm posting it for those who read here that do not work for HHSC.  So it appears as though HHSC is going to continue rolling out TIERS which STILL does not perform in a way that it should.  I suppose this also means that the issues that TIERS has in relation to fraud (where cases are basically not prosecuted that have fraud because there's no way to verify/prove that TIERS didn't cause the overpayment)...will now be spread into even MORE counties.

 

So while HHSC tells the public that they are putting the contract with Accenture rollout on "hold"- they are still going to rollout the system that doesn't work.

 

Good luck to the following counties:

 

 

 

I wanted to let you know that we now have a schedule for the next case conversions to our new computer system for eligibility services, TIERS. You may recall that we announced in December that we’d begin the conversion process this year and that we expect a statewide conversion to take about 18 months.

 

In April, we will begin a series of conversions over the spring and summer that will move more counties in Region 7 and a few in Region 8 to the new system. Each conversion will take place after cutoff for that month. Here's the schedule:

 

April          Bastrop , Burnet, Caldwell , Comal, Guadalupe, Lampasas and Llano counties

May          Bell County

June          Brazos , Burleson, Fayette, Grimes, Milam and Washington counties

July           McLennan County

August      Bosque, Coryell, Falls, Freestone, Hamilton, Hill, Lee, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Mills, Robertson and San Saba counties.

 

State workers will continue to process all cases, and all state offices will remain open. With each conversion, we will conduct thorough readiness assessments before reaching a final determination to move forward. We moved Williamson County cases to TIERS in November 2006, and we converted foster care cases in February of this year. Both those conversions went very well.

 

Staff in the conversion areas will begin receiving TIERS training, and ART workers will fill in at the offices while staff receive training. In addition, ART workers will be on hand in the offices to assist with each transition.

 

If you have questions or concerns, please let your supervisor know. One of the keys to any computer conversion is to identify and address issues quickly. You are on the front lines, and we need and value your input to make the transition successful.

 

Thank you for all your hard work and your commitment to our clients.

 

Anne Heiligenstein

Deputy Executive Commissioner for Social Services

 

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Just some rambling

First off, sorry I've been away. I've not abandoned the blog (by any means)- work has been horribly busy and by the time I get home? I'm spent of all things HHSC.

I will say that with the session going on, there's no better time for those of us in the filed who are seeing the destruction that has become of this agency to SPEAK OUT! Write letters! Send your representative the link to this blog if you'd like- anything to get the word out.

I also want to do a post in the future of what the actual personal toll all this has taken on the actual employees. We all know the effects that the changes have had on our clients, but what about those of us who have served the agency and it's clients well for years- that have had to make huge personal changes due to what has gone on. Some have left the agency and taken a pay cut just to ensure they had a job (because they got a layoff notice). Some have sold homes, cars, cut out other various expenses (vacations, etc) because they thought they were losing their jobs. You have employees who, due to the stress, have developed medical problems that is directly due to the conditions under which they are now working. Stress kills. Then you have those employees that the agency really couldn't afford to lose, but have retired and NOT come back because it wasn't an agency they believed in anymore. Many of our offices are now short staffed with very few tenured workers left and the rest are temporary employees who are thrown into the fire and expected to be able to grasp the policy and see the full caseload with little or no protected plans in place. This overwhelms new people to the point that THEY then leave.

And now, they are expanding TIERS? So you will have small rural offices that have always been able to truly help their clients, see many appointments per day, etc- and now? With TIERS? That level of service will go way down. For HHSC "Powers that Be" to continue to act as though TIERS is the God-send of human services are just giving the public lip service. The amount of money that has been POURED into TIERS still has not produced the end product as promised. I'm sure most of us either work in TIERS already, or know a worker who is in ART and hears the stories of a "no show" taking an hour to process, or the simple procedure of correcting a case takes forever......this? this is client service? Insane.

So in offices that are seeing 15+ clients per day? What do they think will happen to the "almighty lead time" when the offices rollout into TIERS? If that office can only see 4-5 to account for the learning curve, it pushes the lead time even FURTHER. Which directly conflicts with Federal regulations. Is FNS doing anything at all?

Rumor has it that the Pilot area sees upwards of 17-18 appointments per day in TIERS. Can anyone verify? I've also heard that they are also getting massive amounts of overtime. So when those in charge point to the pilot area and how many they are seeing as the "model to follow"- they leave out the fact that it's not being done in an 8 hour day. How about those employees that have actual "lives" outside of the office? Are the rollout offices supposed to tell these employees that their families, their children, their outside responsibilities are no longer important? I guess they could, and more people could just quit.