UHIP troubles: People falsely receiving notices that they are dead

There is growing frustration for Rhode Islanders struggling to get the benefits they are owed under the state’s problem plagued benefits system UHIP.

A new issue is affecting an unknown number of people on Medicaid.

The Communications Director for the office of Health and Human Services, Ashley O’Shea writing to ABC 6 News in an email saying, "It is clear that there are some individuals who are receiving notices that their Medicaid coverage will be terminated because they are deceased when, in fact, they are not."

We’re told the state is working to get the people receiving these notices the coverage that they need. What’s not clear at this point is why this is happening.

This is not the first time an issue like this has arisen. Back in December of 2016, ABC 6 News spoke to a mother of four, whose kids were somehow falsely declared dead by the system taking away benefits.

The problems for UHIP have been popping up since the system’s launch last year.

Back in November we learned that the number of pending applications skyrocketed to more than 7,000. That happened after it was made public that thousands of applications were found un-processed.

Other issues have included massive backlogs, wrong payments and federal warnings.

(C) WLNE 2017