The biggest single state contract in North Carolina is behind schedule and over budget. The Medicaid claims system is two years behind and $200 million over the original contract signed in 2008.
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Joe Neff came to The N&O in 1992 and has covered prisons, police, courts and the legislature. His most recent major work was "Agents' Secrets," a four-part series about problems in the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation. He can be reached at joseph.neff@newsobserver.com.Advertisements


Comments
Time to change Medicaid claims system project manager
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 09:24 — Citizen123A major consistent thread between the State's previous failure to acquire a new claims payment system (with ACS) and the schedule delay / cost over-run of the current project (with CSC) is Angie Sligh, the State's project manager for both massive failures. Why is she still employed with the State in any position, and especially why is she still micro-managing in this position? Also, change the project approach from seeking an immediate multi-payer solution to more quickly implementing a single payer solution, replacing (and eliminating) the EDS claims payment costs (which are extremely high for processing a claim). The system CSC is using as the basis for the NC solution is a proven single payer solution, paying about $40 billion / year in claims for New York State. With some table and rule changes, that same system can be relatively quickly implemented for North Carolina, and incrementally add the capability to pay other claim types, ending up with the multi-payer system the State project office wants. Curious minds may also further question the State project office's role in these two failures - are there other motivations contributing to repeated failures? Are the project office staff concerned about losing their jobs at successful project completion (several seem to be making a career of successive failed projects)? What is the relationship between the State project staff and EDS, who's had this claims payment contract for over 20 years - an unusual length of time, compared to claims payment contracts in other States? Are any State personnel motivated, by whatever reasons, for EDS's contract to be further extended, as happened with the ACS failure and is now happening with the CSC failure? It's time for a real investigation and real changes.