Lawmakers grill administration on UHIP launch

By: Samantha Fenlon

sfenlon@abc6.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – For 4 hours lawmakers on the House Oversight and Finance Committees grilled the administration on what many are now calling a "botched rollout" of the state’s new benefit system.. UHIP…

"I just don’t understand the decision that with half failing you went forward with all these many problems, deficiencies, you went forward," said State Rep. Patricia Morgan.

The anger and frustration from the state reps comes a month after the system, which a third of Rhode Islanders rely on, went live.

In that time, multiple issues have come up including everything from trouble getting SSI payments, to issues with EBT cards, to long wait times.

"What difference would two more months have made because we ran into cost overruns anyways," said State Rep. Patricia Serpa the Chair of the House Oversight Committee.

In the briefing Thursday night we learned the contract with the company behind the system, Deloitte Consulting, was changed 40 times since the start of the program 3 years ago.

We also learned costs sky rocketed from an initial $191 million to the current $364 million.

"Did we overreach?" asked State Rep. Kenneth Marshall.

Among the questions pushed by lawmakers, why was the system rolled outwhen a federal agency warned it wasn’t ready?

Elizabeth Roberts, the Health and Human Services Secretary, says they do not regret their choice.

"It was the right decision. I know that there are challenges on the ground. But, we needed to get the system up and running and fix the issues that resulted," said Roberts.

Despite lots of explanation, lawmakers including Republican Rep. Mike Chippendale were not fully satisfied

"I do feel that some of the information that was given may have been not necessarily inaccurate intentionally, but as a whole I don’t think the assessment of certain things like wait times is being done properly," said Chippendale. "So, I wasn’t necessarily satisfied that those answers were 100% accurate."

A big point stressed by lawmakers was the need for an emergency hot line for people without these benefits who are having real emergencies.

The administration says they are working on putting together something like that.

Chair Serpa says she wants weekly updates on progress with UHIP and plans to hold additional hearings moving forward.

©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2016