DHHS debacles need fixing, not praise

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, December 14, 2013.

We appreciate Gov. Pat McCrory's loyalty to his top administrators. It's likely that Aldona Wos, the state secretary of health and human services, appreciates it even more.

McCrory has had her back through nearly a year of meltdowns and gaffes that go back to the beginning of his administration. That includes a series of high-level hires that looked a lot like political payoffs; a Medicaid computer system that has left doctors, clinics and hospitals out millions of dollars in reimbursements; and a food-stamp computer system that left thousands of recipients dependent on soup kitchens and charitable food pantries.

Through it all, McCrory seemed outraged when Wos came under fire for her department's messes. The outrage was misplaced. It should be directed at the debacles the Department of Health and Human Services has created.

We're not suggesting that managing the biggest, most expensive department in state government is easy. But we do wonder whether Wos - a physician, political fundraiser and former ambassador - has the expertise to run it.

Wos is smart. She can be charming and certainly is feisty. Her department badly needed streamlining. It especially needed new computer systems to better manage big-ticket programs such as Medicaid, the health-insurance program for the poor, and food stamps. But the new programs were brought online before they were fully tested and without a safety net.

Recent Associated Press reports showed that while Wos was blaming the food-stamp problem on poor training by county agencies, her department's internal assessments faulted in-house technical problems - most counties were doing the job right.

Last week, Health and Human Services' Chief Information Officer Joe Cooper told lawmakers that the Medicaid processing system was working well. The state employees running the system, he said, should be "congratulated on seeing this project through a successful launch."

A day earlier, State Auditor Beth Wood released a report on the NCTracks Medicaid system that told a different story. Through October, more than 3,200 program defects have been found in NCTracks software. And the N.C. Medical Society, many of whose members are still waiting for Medicaid reimbursements, said it hoped the audit would lead the state to "fix NCTracks once and for all."

We need more accountability at Health and Human Services, fewer excuses, and much less unearned praise.