DHHS should get on reform, not spinning

Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, November 8, 2013.

When efficient organizations make a mistake, they fix it.

When dysfunctional organizations like the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services make repeated mistakes, they assign more public- relations people.

DHHS, a public relations nightmare for Gov. Pat McCrory since he was inaugurated in January, is floundering.

It has botched the implementation of the software system that pays Medicaid bills, thus putting small hospitals and medical practices in serious cash-flow danger. It has also lurched forward trying to implement a privatization of that same Medicaid system, losing its director after she had been on the job less than 10 months.

During the federal government shutdown in October, DHHS issued some curious rulings about the state’s continued participation in social service programs, thus putting North Carolina families in financial difficulty.

On the personnel front, DHHS has been at the front of controversies over young rookies being hired into high-paying jobs and a business friend of Secretary Dr. Aldona Wos being given a sizable cash settlement when he left state employment after only one month. And then there were questions about internal documents that indicate DHHS was not forthright with legislators and the state auditor about the true costs of the state’s Medicaid operation in previous years.

Rather than fix her controversies-of-the-month, Wos is putting more public relations people in place, moving them from other areas in DHHS but not giving details on where they’re coming from or what their salaries are. Journal reporter Richard Craver reported this week, based on documents secured by N.C. Policy Watch, that one of those highly paid recent college grads, Ricky Diaz, penned an internal memo outlining that there will soon be a staff of 24 in the public relations section he heads.

Diaz, who is paid $85,000 annually to lead DHHS’s PR, “declined to answer questions about the cost of the salaries to fill the six vacant jobs and the communications office’s overall payroll,” Craver reported."

So they’re expanding communications but can’t answer simple questions?

DHHS officials say they’re just following state law and policies on new hires and salaries for vacant positions, but they won’t say which of those positions are state-exempt ones.

Rather than expand her department’s flack corps, Wos should be fixing DHHS’s operations. As other critics have indicated, North Carolina needs more reform and less spin from her department.