Millions of the territory’s dollars will be saved and opportunities for fraud will be reduced when the Human Services Department gets its integrated program eligibility enrollment computer system up and running, the department’s administrator for family assistance, Lennox Zamore, said Monday. The computer system gathers information about clients and all the Human Services programs in which they participate.
While the department was supposed to have the computer system in place by the end of 2015, Zamore said it got a break when the federal government’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services extended the deadline until December 2018 to include programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. He said funding would be available indefinitely to include Medicaid in the system.
Zamore said most states struggled with the 2015 deadline.
Human Services got the extension news last week, as the department was rushing through a complex procurement of four applications for federal funding and four requests for proposal to vendors to build the software, according to the release. Human Services indicated the estimated timetable to complete a project of this magnitude is at least two years, which would require the department to shoulder a greater portion of the project cost if it missed the 2015 deadline.
“This extension takes the pressure off the department to create an integrated system and off the software developers to complete the project in too short a time,” Human Services Commissioner Christopher Finch said.
While the federal/local match for funding originally stood at 55 percent from the federal government and 45 percent in local matching funds, it now stands at 90 percent from the federal government and 10 percent in local funds.
“The Affordable Care Act turned the spigot wide open. It’s an incredible savings,” Zamore said.
He said it’s a reimbursable program so the territory has to come up with the money before getting it back from the federal government.
Government House weighed in with a statement. “From the inception of the president’s health care reform initiatives we have diligently tried to ensure that the territory maximizes all Medicaid related financial and capital systems improvements available under these initiatives," Gov. John deJongh Jr. said in the press release.
“The ability for our Medicaid program to fund this project with only a 10 percent local match investment from our General Fund ensures that residents will benefit from a "one stop shopping" experience while limiting the burden on our local financial resource,” deJongh said.
How much it will cost to integrate the territory’s assistance programs into one spot remains to be seen. Zamore said requests for proposals are out, and he doesn’t want to tip his hand by indicating what he expects it will cost.
“Millions,” he said.
Zamore said he hopes that after Human Services gets all its programs integrated, the rest of the government will follow suit because the department’s clients also get services from other agencies.
The integrated computer program also means that clients won’t have to fill out multiple forms to be eligible for services, Zamore said.
Human Services administers a slew of programs where recipients must show eligibility. In addition to Medicaid, SNAP and TANIF, aid to disabled adults, aid to disabled people, aid to blind people, an energy program, a childcare program and Head Start are on the list. Eligible seniors can get pharmaceutical assistance.
As for other government programs, Zamore said he hopes housing programs and an income tax credit will be integrated into the system in the future.
