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It's been more than three years since Colorado implemented its “state of the art” public welfare benefits payment system, and things still aren't as they should be.
From the time when the Colorado Benefits Management System was put in place in September of 2004—and likely before then—the system has caused a seemingly endless number of woes for state and county officials, lawmakers, human services workers and those who receive benefits like food stamps and Medicaid.
And today, county agencies still have phone lines bogged down with inquiries about CBMS-generated notifications, which are sometimes confusing and contradictory. Glitches pop up every time an old problem is fixed. The program still sends out over-compensation and, at the same time, has failed to give some residents who are eligible for public assistance all that they’re owed.
Either way, it's still not doing its job.
Local officials report that though the system has improved since its disastrous start, it's still not right.
“It's better than it was, but it's not anywhere near where it needs to be,” said Marsha Ellis, a Human Services division manager.
Audit after audit has listed fault after fault, and emergency funds from the Joint Budget Committee have not fixed those problems. It started as a $199 million project, and now the costs have soared to at least $223 million, paying to help counties and for a lawsuit.
“We continue to see a number of discrepancies from the system,” said Larimer County Commissioner Randy Eubanks, who sits on the CBMS Advisory Board, which includes representatives from county Human Services departments, county commissioners, state department directors and state staff. The two biggest discrepancies, he says: Those who are eligible are not getting their needed benefits and others are receiving far more than what they should be.
The advisory board is allowing county commissioners and county officials to join the “do or die” fight to fix CBMS for good. The board, Eubanks said, is giving Colorado's counties a say in a situation that impacts them significantly.
“The counties are doing a great job of working with what they have,” he said. “But now the commissioners have a voice in this. We (counties) are the ones who have to deal with it: the lines of people who need assistance, the extra staffing, the backlogs of discrepancies. That's what we have to deal with.”
Just fix it, they say. But the state has been there and tried that—and fixing this much maligned system seems like a oasis in this desert of flawed technology, complicated decision tables and benefits delays.
The revolutionary idea was to trade six older systems overseeing state-administered welfare benefits programs with one system that would collect information, establish eligibility and process distribution of benefits. It was a promise of better services for benefits recipients and a better managed system.
The hungry would be feed, the sick would be healed, and the young would be nurtured.
“CBMS will improve access to public assistance and medical benefits by integrating the functions of the existing automated systems, providing one-stop shopping for clients, permitting faster eligibility determinations, and providing increased accuracy and consistency in eligibility determinations and benefit calculations,” according to the executive order that called for CBMS's implementation.
Colorado began developing the program in 1995, and in 1999 funds were given to begin the actual work. The state contracted the next year with a large firm, Electronic Data Systems, to design the system.
Almost four years later, CBMS was ready for implementation and the state was ready for conversion.
Or were they?
The problems with CBMS came even before the more than $200 million program made its debut in September of 2004, when many thought—and still think—the computer program was employed too early.
“A premature implementation will result in serious impacts to clients and County Departments of Human Services,” Human Services department directors of four Colorado counties wrote to the executive directors of the Colorado Department of Human Services and the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing in August of 2004. “We feel the system must first be adequately tested and the pilots successful before moving forward on this major computer conversion.”
Deadlines were missed and the flaws began to show in the system that was supposed to process the hundreds of thousands of benefits cases in Colorado. It rolled out and was almost immediately backlogged; the backlog reached around 30,000 cases at one point.
Since the day of implementation, the state, counties and benefit recipients have cried foul about CBMS. There have been lawsuits and federal orders demanding that the state fix the system and reduce the backlog, but it has continued to cause problems for almost all involved.
There was a $365,000 audit, which resulted in a 100-page report with more than 90 recommendations, and another audit by the Colorado Attorney General's office. The Joint Budget Committee continues to allocate money to fix the technology and help counties.
The program was supposed to be an attempt to hasten and streamline the processing and payments of benefits for welfare programs. But with kinks and glitches galore, CBMS is now blamed for thousands of residents failing to get aid.
“It seems like we have just been dealing with symptoms,” Eubanks said. “And there is a question of whether or not it can be fixed.”
On top of that, the federal government has given the state an $11 million bill for food stamp overpayments—caused by CBMS's so-called state-of-the-art processing.
In the statewide picture, CBMS is still a major trouble maker—but it's a whole lot better than when it was first implemented. Everyone has had their hand in trying to fix it, from governors and steering committees to non-profits and advocates.
The state last month settled with a legal advocacy group over the program. The Colorado Center on Law and Policy had brought a lawsuit on behalf of those benefits recipients who failed to get their payments or food stamps. With the settlement, the state will now have to make sure that those funds and services are delivered to residents on time. It also requires that an auditor randomly review cases to make sure that benefits are approved or denied correctly.
But there is a whole lot more to be worked out, like how the state and counties can collect overpayments. And what will it take to finally fix all the glitches in the actual system—not just the “symptoms”?
In Larimer County, Eubanks and Marsha Ellis, Human Services division manager, said they believe that locals have not gone without food or assistance. They say the county has gotten good at working around the inefficiencies and problems in the system.
“We don't seem to have a lot of that (residents going without benefits), like some of the metro counties that are not getting food stamps out timely,” Ellis said. “Are we a 100 percent timely? No. But we are as quick as we can be.”
Yes, as the system continues to be flawed, Colorado's counties have gotten better at predicting and working around its idiosyncrasies.
“Well, compared to September of ’04, it has come light years,” Ellis said. “Now, is it as good as it used to be? No. … It still has a ways to go.”
Ellis said that it seems like every time there is a change to an application, she says, something else doesn't work.
“Sometimes we don't find out until down the line that something has changed,” she said. “It's also a cumbersome number of screens that the staff has to complete.”
Larimer County DHS started a call center last September to field the calls coming in from those with questions regarding CBMS-generated notices and other programs; they started out with four workers and then added two more and soon two more because of the volume of calls. They now also make sure that anytime there is a change to the system, all the staff knows what to do.
While some have called for the execution of CBMS, Ellis does not believe in scrapping CBMS and looking for something new.
“In my personal opinion, they have got to make it work,” Ellis said. “There has been so much time spent on the system. I don't think it would be doable to start something new, and it would be extremely expensive.”
And now, as a part of the CBMS Advisory Board, Eubanks wants to make sure the state is focused on looking at the end product.
“With this committee, we try to speak with a united voice,” he said. “Right now, there are no more fingers to point. It's about trying to fix it as much as possible.”
BREAKOUT
From the time when the Colorado Benefits Management System was put in place in September of 2004—and likely before then—the system has caused a seemingly endless number of woes for state and county officials, lawmakers, human services workers and those who receive benefits like food stamps and Medicaid.
And today, county agencies still have phone lines bogged down with inquiries about CBMS-generated notifications, which are sometimes confusing and contradictory. Glitches pop up every time an old problem is fixed. The program still sends out over-compensation and, at the same time, has failed to give some residents who are eligible for public assistance all that they’re owed.
Either way, it's still not doing its job.
Local officials report that though the system has improved since its disastrous start, it's still not right.
“It's better than it was, but it's not anywhere near where it needs to be,” said Marsha Ellis, a Human Services division manager.
Audit after audit has listed fault after fault, and emergency funds from the Joint Budget Committee have not fixed those problems. It started as a $199 million project, and now the costs have soared to at least $223 million, paying to help counties and for a lawsuit.
“We continue to see a number of discrepancies from the system,” said Larimer County Commissioner Randy Eubanks, who sits on the CBMS Advisory Board, which includes representatives from county Human Services departments, county commissioners, state department directors and state staff. The two biggest discrepancies, he says: Those who are eligible are not getting their needed benefits and others are receiving far more than what they should be.
The advisory board is allowing county commissioners and county officials to join the “do or die” fight to fix CBMS for good. The board, Eubanks said, is giving Colorado's counties a say in a situation that impacts them significantly.
“The counties are doing a great job of working with what they have,” he said. “But now the commissioners have a voice in this. We (counties) are the ones who have to deal with it: the lines of people who need assistance, the extra staffing, the backlogs of discrepancies. That's what we have to deal with.”
Just fix it, they say. But the state has been there and tried that—and fixing this much maligned system seems like a oasis in this desert of flawed technology, complicated decision tables and benefits delays.
The revolutionary idea was to trade six older systems overseeing state-administered welfare benefits programs with one system that would collect information, establish eligibility and process distribution of benefits. It was a promise of better services for benefits recipients and a better managed system.
The hungry would be feed, the sick would be healed, and the young would be nurtured.
“CBMS will improve access to public assistance and medical benefits by integrating the functions of the existing automated systems, providing one-stop shopping for clients, permitting faster eligibility determinations, and providing increased accuracy and consistency in eligibility determinations and benefit calculations,” according to the executive order that called for CBMS's implementation.
Colorado began developing the program in 1995, and in 1999 funds were given to begin the actual work. The state contracted the next year with a large firm, Electronic Data Systems, to design the system.
Almost four years later, CBMS was ready for implementation and the state was ready for conversion.
Or were they?
The problems with CBMS came even before the more than $200 million program made its debut in September of 2004, when many thought—and still think—the computer program was employed too early.
“A premature implementation will result in serious impacts to clients and County Departments of Human Services,” Human Services department directors of four Colorado counties wrote to the executive directors of the Colorado Department of Human Services and the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing in August of 2004. “We feel the system must first be adequately tested and the pilots successful before moving forward on this major computer conversion.”
Deadlines were missed and the flaws began to show in the system that was supposed to process the hundreds of thousands of benefits cases in Colorado. It rolled out and was almost immediately backlogged; the backlog reached around 30,000 cases at one point.
Since the day of implementation, the state, counties and benefit recipients have cried foul about CBMS. There have been lawsuits and federal orders demanding that the state fix the system and reduce the backlog, but it has continued to cause problems for almost all involved.
There was a $365,000 audit, which resulted in a 100-page report with more than 90 recommendations, and another audit by the Colorado Attorney General's office. The Joint Budget Committee continues to allocate money to fix the technology and help counties.
The program was supposed to be an attempt to hasten and streamline the processing and payments of benefits for welfare programs. But with kinks and glitches galore, CBMS is now blamed for thousands of residents failing to get aid.
“It seems like we have just been dealing with symptoms,” Eubanks said. “And there is a question of whether or not it can be fixed.”
On top of that, the federal government has given the state an $11 million bill for food stamp overpayments—caused by CBMS's so-called state-of-the-art processing.
In the statewide picture, CBMS is still a major trouble maker—but it's a whole lot better than when it was first implemented. Everyone has had their hand in trying to fix it, from governors and steering committees to non-profits and advocates.
The state last month settled with a legal advocacy group over the program. The Colorado Center on Law and Policy had brought a lawsuit on behalf of those benefits recipients who failed to get their payments or food stamps. With the settlement, the state will now have to make sure that those funds and services are delivered to residents on time. It also requires that an auditor randomly review cases to make sure that benefits are approved or denied correctly.
But there is a whole lot more to be worked out, like how the state and counties can collect overpayments. And what will it take to finally fix all the glitches in the actual system—not just the “symptoms”?
In Larimer County, Eubanks and Marsha Ellis, Human Services division manager, said they believe that locals have not gone without food or assistance. They say the county has gotten good at working around the inefficiencies and problems in the system.
“We don't seem to have a lot of that (residents going without benefits), like some of the metro counties that are not getting food stamps out timely,” Ellis said. “Are we a 100 percent timely? No. But we are as quick as we can be.”
Yes, as the system continues to be flawed, Colorado's counties have gotten better at predicting and working around its idiosyncrasies.
“Well, compared to September of ’04, it has come light years,” Ellis said. “Now, is it as good as it used to be? No. … It still has a ways to go.”
Ellis said that it seems like every time there is a change to an application, she says, something else doesn't work.
“Sometimes we don't find out until down the line that something has changed,” she said. “It's also a cumbersome number of screens that the staff has to complete.”
Larimer County DHS started a call center last September to field the calls coming in from those with questions regarding CBMS-generated notices and other programs; they started out with four workers and then added two more and soon two more because of the volume of calls. They now also make sure that anytime there is a change to the system, all the staff knows what to do.
While some have called for the execution of CBMS, Ellis does not believe in scrapping CBMS and looking for something new.
“In my personal opinion, they have got to make it work,” Ellis said. “There has been so much time spent on the system. I don't think it would be doable to start something new, and it would be extremely expensive.”
And now, as a part of the CBMS Advisory Board, Eubanks wants to make sure the state is focused on looking at the end product.
“With this committee, we try to speak with a united voice,” he said. “Right now, there are no more fingers to point. It's about trying to fix it as much as possible.”
BREAKOUT
Having problems with CBMS?
Fort Collins Now wants to continue looking into CBMS, its flaws, potential fixes and future. If you are a benefits recipient who would like to talk about your experiences in getting benefits, please call 970-493-1011 ext. 11289.
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