Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Another State IT Project Delayed

Yet another costly delay.

A $32.3 million overhaul of the state’s computer system that handles Medicaid health claims for the poor will be delayed by at least 10 months, a state health department official said.

The lagging project means taxpayers could be missing out on administrative cost savings from the new system, which is supposed to replace the 30-year-old current model. It also opens the possibility that Wisconsin might run afoul of a federal deadline to change the way some Medicaid data is reported.

The Medicaid project, the second-largest state computer initiative, is the latest in a series of costly problems with such state systems.

And this is frustrating:

The state Department of Health and Family Services so far has not outlined why the project is behind schedule or responded to requests for the potential fiscal effect on taxpayers.

Why the delay?  That shouldn’t be a hard question to answer.  The contractor missed a deadline.  Why?  Were they waiting on something from state officials or did they just blow it?  Did the scope creep making the deadline unrealistic?  Is the system not working correctly? 

Somebody knows these answers and the state should be disclosing them.

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1734 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin + Technology

  1. How many projects have delayed and at what cost?  Seems to me that there have been several projects that have ruined or delayed at a cost of 10’s or hundreds of millios of dollars.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 18, 2007 at 1838 hrs


  2. Umnnhhh…..$170 million and counting, to date.

    Some grains of salt should be taken with these releases.  Remember that the State Employees’ Union is very interested in ....their members….and not the taxpayers.

    At the same time, overall IT management at the State of Wisconsin sucks.  Excellent, proven, private-industry IT execs have looked at the State’s IT operations and made simple suggestions—all of which were stuffed by Fiefdom-Lord State IT managers and their respective Department Secretaries.

    BTW, it ain’t just Doylies—this goes back to the TT/Klauser reign.  TT didn’t care, and Klauser lost the batttle.

    Another TT legacy.

    Posted by dad29 on July 19, 2007 at 0830 hrs


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