Ind. FSSA data shows hybrid system reducing welfare woes, but advocates want more information

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FSSA: Welfare woes declining under hybrid system

INDIANAPOLIS — Adding more local welfare workers in 10 southwestern counties has cut the problems that clients have had with Indiana’s privatized, automated benefits system, the state human services agency said Monday.

Anne Murphy, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, is expected to present the results from the rollout of the so-called “hybrid” welfare intake system to the State Budget Committee this week.

She, along with other top officials, are satisfied enough with that rollout that the agency’s announcement that it’s expanding the hybrid system to other counties could come as early as Tuesday, FSSA spokesman Marcus Barlow said Monday.

However, advocates say they want to see more data from the hybrid system before they’re ready to deem it successful. One said data within the FSSA shows enrollment growth for state-run health programs in the counties using the hybrid system lagged behind the state average, while enrollment in 49 counties using the automated system outpaces the state average.

The state has been scrambling to fix the problems created when it turned over welfare intake for more than 1 million Indiana residents to a team of vendors, sparking lawsuits and complaints from clients and lawmakers. Critics remain wary of FSSA’s ability to adequately deliver food stamps, Medicaid and other help to a growing number of people who need it.

Data that Murphy will present to the Budget Committee on Wednesday shows:

— Food stamp requalifications in the 10 hybrid counties occur more timely than in the 49 other automated counties or 33 counties that still rely on strictly face-to-face contact between clients and case workers. The automated system includes online applications, document imaging and call centers.

— Appeals by clients in the 10 hybrid counties over their benefits fell off to about 60 last month, or less than a third of the more than 200 in January, when FSSA launched the hybrid at the end of that month. Barlow said FSSA attributes the drop to “fewer clients being confused about the application and denial process.”

— Applications for Medicaid disability benefits pending more than 90 days fell to 2.32 percent last month, compared with 11.55 percent in January.

— The rate of incoming calls to the hybrid area’s county offices that were abandoned by clients spiked upward to about 10 percent during the second week of April before leveling off below 2 percent the last week of the month.

— The number of people enrolled in one or more benefit program has risen 37 percent since 2005 to 1.23 million, or nearly one of every five Indiana residents.

“The Hybrid has operated well during a period of increased volume,” Barlow said in an e-mail message.

Some advocates agreed welfare intake appears to operate better under the hybrid system than in the rest of the state, but said they needed to see more data before calling it a success.

“At the very least, the public complaints seem to have dropped off in the hybrid region substantially,” said John Cardwell, chairman of the Indiana Home Care Task Force.

David Roos, director of the public health insurance advocacy group Covering Kids & Families of Indiana, said the data showed FSSA making progress but internal FSSA data shows hybrid counties lagging behind the state averages for enrollment growth for Hoosier Healthwise and other Medicaid programs.

While enrollment in all Medicaid programs grew 1.8 percent statewide from January to March, in two of the hybrid counties, Daviess and Pike, it fell by more than 1 percent. Enrollment growth outpaced the state average in most of the 49 other automated — or modernized — counties, Roos said.

“Why is it, on the whole the rest of the modernized counties are improving, but the hybrid counties are not?” Roos asked.

Barlow said health program enrollment grew 2 percent statewide from December to March and 1.5 percent in the hybrid region, calling the difference “statistically negligible.”

The other eight hybrid counties are Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Perry, Posey, Spencer, Warrick and Vanderburgh.

Privatized, automated welfare intake under an FSSA contract with Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. reached 59 counties before Murphy halted it in January 2009. Gov. Mitch Daniels fired IBM in October.