UHIP: One year later

It’s almost been one year since the launch of the state’s troubled benefits system, UHIP. The official launch date was September 13, 2016.

"The hardest thing is that after dealing with a major system challenge like this it takes a number of weeks and months to get things back on track,” said Eric Beane the newly appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Beane was brought on the team in January amid major shakeups. Since the launch last September, the former HHS Secretary, DHS Director and Chief Digital Officer have all resigned.

Beane says his goal from day one has been tackling the tremendous backlog of applications.

"We’ve actually exceeded most of our targets in that regard,” said Beane.

At its peak the backlog reached more than 14,000. The latest numbers out today put it at less than 4,000.

"The biggest remaining challenge is with our long-term services and support system,” said Beane.

Problems since the launch have ranged from long wait times to compromised information, federal warnings, delayed payments and most recently overpayments.

Deloitte the vendor responsible for creating the system has not been paid since late December, even issuing back a $27 million credit to the state.

There are $11.51 million of submitted invoices from Deloitte that the state has not yet paid.

"We remain in negotiations with them and we are going to continue to hold them accountable,” said Beane.

(C) WLNE 2017