"POLITICS AND OTHER MISTAKES"
And this is why you can't have nice things
By Al Diamon
"In the next few weeks of the process, we'll be getting the I's dotted and the T's crossed." - Michael Norton, state Bureau of Medical Services spokesman, explaining that, due to glitches in a new Medicaid computer system, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has failed for several weeks to make payments of up to $24 million per week to healthcare providers, but that the problem will be cleared up soon, Lewiston Sun Journal, Feb. 12, 2005."We knew the number of claims being paid was much lower than usual, but we thought maybe providers were just holding off submitting their bills because the system was different." - Christine Gianopoulos, acting director of the medical services bureau, on why DHHS was slow to respond to the situation, which, by this time, had resulted in hundreds of thousands of unpaid claims, Bangor Daily News, March 1, 2005.
"My staff tells me they'll have the system processing 100 percent of the claims by the end of the month." - Jack Nicholas, commissioner of DHHS, Bangor Daily News, March 3, 2005.
"I've told the commissioner that he has 30 days to fix the problem. This has to be done. I'm taking action. People will be held accountable." - Gov. John Baldacci, Associated Press, March 4, 2005.
"This is very complex. But when it's done … the system will be magnitudes better than what we had in the past." - Richard Thompson, state chief information officer, explaining why the computer program won't be fixed until June, Bangor Daily News, April 27, 2005.
"We're not simply shifting around resources and making small incremental changes. We are in essence designing a new MaineCare [Medicaid] agency." - Mike Hall, deputy commissioner, DHHS, explaining why the system wasn't fixed by June, news conference, July 13, 2005.
"By the time we get to the end of October, we're going to be there. There's no question that we're going to be there by the end of the year and quite possibly before then." - Hall, Morning Sentinel (Waterville), August 16, 2005.
"State clearing Medicaid backlog" - headline, Portland Press Herald, Oct. 6, 2005.
"State making dent in medical claims backlog" - headline, Morning Sentinel, Dec. 22, 2005.
"Billing system flaws persist" - headline, Bangor Daily News, March 4, 2006.
"We haven't broken the champagne out yet, but we're cautiously optimistic. We don't know what we don't know, but it's hard to imagine that we'll ever be where we were last January and February." - Brenda Harvey, acting DHHS commissioner, Sun Journal, March 23, 2006.
"When I look at where we were and where [we've] come from, we've made great gains." - Harvey, now the official commissioner, announcing that fixing the problem will take another year (and, although she didn't mention it in this interview, 50 additional workers), Kennebec Journal (Augusta), August 6, 2006.
"We expect a significant decline in [the 128,000 unresolved claims] over the next few weeks and are reasonably confident we are going to bring this number below 100,000 in the near future." - Hall, speaking to a legislative committee, Sept. 28, 2006.
"All options are being considered. We will take a decisive position and move forward. Our goal is to get to the end point as fast as we can, with the least cost to the taxpayer and the federal government." - Harvey, admitting the state is considering privatizing the Medicaid payment system, which has so far cost taxpayers close to $60 million, more than twice the budgeted amount, Bangor Daily News, Dec. 16, 2006.
"The path that is included in the budget is flexibility to move to a fiscal agent approach or some other approach." - Rebecca Wyke, state finance commissioner, explaining (or, perhaps, not) the Baldacci administration's plan to fix Medicaid, Capital News Service, Jan. 8, 2007.
"The decision is not final yet, but it gives us the ability to consider other options." - Wyke, still working away at it, Sun Journal, Jan. 9, 2007.
"The nature of the plan is to transition to a new approach." - Wyke, giving it one more try, Sun Journal, Jan. 9, 2007.
Let's transition to your comments. E-mail me at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
