As the HHSC crumbles

Hey, remember when the state of Texas was going full speed ahead on the privatization of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (THHSC) even though the federal government had official concerns about its ability to deliver the services it's obligated to do? According to Father John, those fears were well founded.

But the real shocker was a report that applicants who do not get a receipt for their applications can kiss those applications good bye, they no longer being processed, but they are being boxed and sent to the warehouse. I guess if the applicant is too absent minded due to his hunger pangs, and does not bother to get a receipt, then he can not prove that he filed the application to begin with, and if he can not prove it, then he or she did not do it.

I truly and sincerely hope that this report is not accurate, for I am sure that boxing applications and sending them to the warehouse is illegal. During my tenure at HHSC-DHS they made sure to let us know that mishandling, and falsifying state documents is a crime, now it appears that it has become agency policy.

That's from Samm Almaguer, who like Father John is now a former employee of THHSC. Father John also says that the recent decline in the number of Texas children insured by Medicaid is due to the staffing shortage at THHSC, which was the result of the layoffs done to get the private contractors installed. Note too that the enrollment decline goes back farther than that story suggests. All this without any real cost savings like we were promised. What a deal.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 30, 2006 to Budget ballyhoo | TrackBack