Evil Computer

System Evil

Americans are constantly bombarded by blather regarding public assistance funding. The noise takes precedence over the dismal performance of the states in administering programs such as SNAP and Medicaid. I'll avoid the term, "broken system." It would just fall on deaf ears. In any event, broken implies reparable (not to mention, the will to repair.)
     Let's begin with Colorado, my state of residence.  A March 3, 2014 headline in "The Denver Post" read: OFFICIALS WANT MILLIONS TO KEEP UPGRADING TROUBLED COMPUTER SYSTEM. The Colorado Benefits Management System has been and remains, faulty, per Colorado Human Services Executive Director, Reggie Bicha. I'll give him that and, oh, so much more. 
     Here are the findings of the most recent state audit, which found Department of Human Services errors on the rise. The errors include: 1) inappropriate approval of approximately $26 million in food assistance benefits (2012 fiscal year;) 2) Erroneous denial of $11 million in food assistance to deserving applicants/clients, during the same period. This translates to erroneous denial, termination or suspension of benefits to 68.7% of Colorado households found ineligible for food assistance, beginning in fiscal year 2012.
     Here's the bottom line with regard to CMBS and the training to use it. It has cost the State of Colorado $300 million to operate, repair and update CMBS. The most recent state investment of $11 million (coupled with federal funds) resulted in increased system efficiency. This is according to the Governor's Information Technology expert, Kristin Russell. (In the interests of fairness, part of the states investment was used to prepare the State for Affordable Health Care and the associated Connect for Health Colorado.) Meanwhile errors continue to plague the system. More important these errors result in suffering, even, death.
     There is a concept in computer technology about faulty systems. Backdoor repairs do not work. In other words, to repair and update a fundamentally bad system is considered by most computer scientists to be futile. This is particularly true in government. California, for example, has been forced to examine the issue of chronic failures of government information technology projects. http://www.pe.com/opinion/editorials-headlines/20130212-editorial-determine-why-state-computer-projects-fail-routinely.ece   

Failure is not an option. -Confucius 

     Considering the audit error outcomes for the State of Colorado Department of Human services, the problem must go deeper than CMBS. I'll back this statement with personal experience as a client of the Denver Department of Human Services over a decade of misery. I do not use the term consumer, because beneficiaries are not treated as either "underserved" or "consumers." 
     From experience, it is impossible to reach a caseworker at DDHS. Supervisory personnel do not respond to calls from clients. It is nearly impossible, with wait times of an hour, to reach the Customer Service Call Center. There is no telephone number or e-mail listing, by means of which the client may communicate directly with a caseworker. Everything and everyone goes through the overburdened central system. 
The Department requires routine paperwork from clients. I have sent certified mail via USPS that failed to be acknowledged, resulting in the denial of benefits. Faxes have failed. Hand delivered documents with the DDHS date stamp prominently displayed, have gone astray. The most recent hand delivery resulted in February 2014 denials and the disappearance of a SNAP (EBT) distribution February 7. 
     By now, you're wondering whether I saved the documentation with receipts. Yes, without fail. DDHS has reluctantly rectified its errors, in my case, for a decade. Herein lies the second part of the problem. Outgoing mail from the Department is not merely slow; it often reaches recipients after the appeal window has closed, denying the household's right to appeal. Next benefits are seemingly cut forthwith.
     If I sound like a whiner, here's what happened following last year's fiasco. I was denied SNAP benefits, admittedly, due to my own error. I received the letter after my benefits were cut. The appeal window had closed by the time I received the notice. Unaware of the cancelation, got to the cashier at a local Safeway store, could not pay for my groceries with food stamps, nor by another means. A friend bailed me out, and, subsequently waived the debt. Anyone for a dose of extreme humiliation and angst? The popular term is "food insecure."  
This year it has happened again. I walked, waited and took a bus and train to DDHS, to hand-deliver my recertification documents in a blizzard. After I obtained a date stamp, I submitted the documents.
     A week later I receive the accusation and denial. In checking my SNAP benefits, I'd been cut off, before the letter arrived. The issue was subsequently resolved online. When I received a demand for yet another change report in March, I made corrections to some ancient expense information, and noted a $4.00 reduction in my rent, due to a reduction in the energy costs for the tax credit building, where I live. Within another week or so, I received a drastic reduction in food stamps and denial of my Medicaid program. Now I am scheduled to make the commute to DDHS and wait three or four hours to, hopefully meet with a case worker. 
     I lost my medical coverage on a similar occasion. The ground is constantly shifting under my feet, and, I must turn either to family or friends occasionally to cover bare essentials. American citizens and politicians actually believe food banks are the place to turn. That's another myth altogether, one I will not try to rectify today. Add this to a persistent attitude on the part of DDHS management and staff that beneficiaries are cheating, unworthy, ungrateful ... undeserving.
     Fix the attitudes and train people to do more than operate their computers. From the tonnage of paper I receive, generated by DDHS computers, the button pushers are certainly winning the paper war. Make the entire system accessible to clients, not just online, Mr. Bicha! Otherwise, even slaying your computer monster will not help. 
      If the latest round of funding is not approved, will Coloradans be worse off? It is hard to conceive, but we know what runs downhill. As for me, I intend to file a federal complaint for five years of denials relating to Medicaid SHIP.  For me, Colorado SHIP repairs have sailed.