Leaders address troubled launch of UHIP system

One month after the launch of the state’s new $364-million benefits system top leaders answering barrage of questions from reporters over whether or not the system should have went live when it did.

"We think that decision was the right one,” said Michael DiBiase the Director of the Department of Administration.

DiBiase stands by the decision to launch, despite warnings from a federal agency that it wasn’t ready.

"There were certain consequences risks and delays in further testing and there is a point in time where further testing is not going to yield the benefits,” said DiBiase.

While many issues have been resolved, some still remain causing long lines and lots of frustration.

New documents show a large increases in both calls and call wait times to DHS from before the launch to now. For example; the week of 9/10 there were a total of 5,628, the week of 10/8 there were 11,610. In the same time period average call wait times rose from 14 minutes to an hour and 12 minutes.

"We still have a small number of costumers who have experienced some issues with EBT cards,” said Melba Depeña Affigne.

In fact Friday night, the DOA released a statement revealing that they’ve identified overpayments made to EBT cards to the tune of $36,000. At this point they believe those payments were sent to just four people. The company behind the system, Deloitte Consulting says they’re working to identify the root cause of the problem and reimburse the state for any overpayments.

Governor Raimondo visited the state’s busiest DHS office this afternoon… talking with fed-up customers and employees about the problems still occurring with the new system.

"It’s frustrating for me to spend time listening to moms who waited for a couple of hours who need to get help for their families. I want to fix it, I want to be there for them. So, we are going to get it right for them,” said Raimondo.

In terms of how leaders would rank the lunch, the three cabinet members who briefed media Friday gave it two B’s and a B+.

(C) WLNE 2016