Private Contract for CHIPS should be revoked

In standard GOP style the Republicans of Texas "privitized" the management of the Children's Health Insurance Program purportedly to save the state money, but truly to deny support to the state's poor, especially children and the elderly. As with all GOP strategies in the era of W, there's a corporation sucking away at the state's money and ensuring that the true beneficiaries don't get the aid they need.

This contract should be revoked by the state of Texas, and the remaining funds should be used to rebuild the state system that cares more about the people than corporate profits.

Houston Chronicle Editorial

July 16, 2006, 8:33PM
Second thoughts
Absent remarkable improvement, the state should cancel the massive contract with a private company hired to screen applicants for state assistance.

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Since the Texas Health and Human Services Commission approved an $899 million contract with a consortium led by Bermuda-based Accenture, very little has gone right. The people who've paid for the blunders are the state's poor, particularly children and the elderly.

Since the state instituted the privatization effort, enrollment and reinstatement rates in the Children's Health Insurance Program have slumped; hundreds of persons have erroneously been denied Medicaid and food stamp eligibility; and applications were mistakenly directed to a Seattle warehouse. Planned layoffs of state caseworkers, which were supposed to result in big savings, were canceled as overwhelmed call centers were forced to return thousands of cases to state employees.

Now 60 Texas state representatives, including eight from Houston, have signed a letter to Health and Human Services Commissioner Albert Hawkins calling for the Texas Access Alliance headed by Accenture to pay the ultimate price by having the contract revoked. The missive, written by Rep. Patrick Haggerty, R-El Paso, asks Hawkins "to cancel the contract with Accenture for nonperformance and commit the remaining resources to rebuilding the human services eligibility system that, as little as two years ago, was among the best in the country."

A group of 30 Republican legislators, including some in the leadership team of House Speaker Tom Craddick, earlier sent out their own letter supporting Accenture. Craddick has defended the contractor in comments to the Houston Chronicle editorial board and Gov. Rick Perry also opposes canceling the contract. So far more than $90 million has been paid to the group. Commissioner Hawkins has said state officials are considering levying penalties against Accenture for its performance.

In attempting to minimize the damage, Hawkins delayed full implementation of the contract and postponed the layoff of state workers for a year. It's now clear that the sweeping privatization plan approved by HHS commissioners has harmed the access of poor Texans to critical safety net services and failed to provide the big savings that were the deal's rationale.

At minimum, HHS officials need to develop much tighter monitoring procedures of the new call centers to guarantee proper handling of applications and eligibility screening. Accenture should be financially penalized for its failure to meet promised service levels and its contract revoked if problems continue.