Inspector General Brian Flood has issued a report highly critical of TIERS, the state’s new billion-dollar eligibility software system, and suggesting that state officials halt its expanded use.
Lawmakers are expected to be fully briefed by Flood late this afternoon in the Senate Finance Committee room. Apparently, TIERS has proved unreliable and cumbersome because it does not include historical data needed for case management.
Flood encourages state authorities to hire a project manager to determine the most cost effective system going forward.
In related news, Health and Human Services chief Albert Hawkins informed lawmakers via letter that the feds have expressed dissatisfaction with the TIERS system; subsquently, HHS will halt expanding use of TIERS.
While this all sounds like minutiae only a wonk would love, it has huge ramifications for privatization in the HHS arena. Some leaders believe that it is TIER’s inadquacies that set up the problems associated with private vendor Accenture.
