Colorado Benefits Management System

Federal audit targets delays, errors in Colorado’s benefits computer system, By Michael Booth, February 13, 2011, Denver Post: “Persistent delays and errors in the state computer system for Medicaid and food stamps have prompted federal officials to launch an ongoing performance review of Colorado’s multibillion-dollar benefit programs. The long-troubled Colorado Benefits Management System continued to malfunction after the federal review got underway last summer, with lockouts and slowdowns plaguing managers through at least December, documents obtained by The Denver Post show. Repeated internal complaints about system crashes also have raised questions about a $44 million contract with Deloitte consultants to overhaul a network that has proved problematic since its installation in 2004 at a cost of $223 million. Disclosure of the new federal audit, after an open-records request, comes as legal-aid attorneys continue their pursuit of court sanctions against the state Health Care Policy and Financing Department for delays in processing benefit records. Those delays have exceeded 70 percent of cases in some months…”