I have come to make a plug for failure. There are many ways
to fail after all your successes…
To pursue something because it matters to you, to your moral
expectations for the world; to pursue something because the
way it occurs now is, to be blunt, unjust, to pursue and invest
in change despite not having the power to implement it directly,
is to be willing to fail. Then success is beside the point….
Claudia Rankine to the 2017 graduates of Wesleyan University
http://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2017/05/28/rankine-delivers-2017-commencement-address/
The Missouri Department of Social Services spends billions of state-collected dollars each year. They do not do it well.
Most of the blame lies not with underpaid, over stressed state employees, no, failure visits often because legislators and other political officials refuse to give the system the resources (especially staff) it needs. And, they mouth false claims that private industry can run government programs better than government employees.
The Foundation For Government Accountability and other operating units in the Koch Brothers funded State Policy Network proclaim time and again that privatization of government services solves problems and saves money. As shown in Florida – and now Missouri – privatization does neither. [ https://fcir.org/2013/11/14/koch-brothers-florida/ ]
Let’s look at three high profile DSS contracts of recent years.
First, go back to the beginning of this decade when the state, finally, began a major effort to update the core computer software used to qualify and track folks getting benefits in Missouri. The existing main program, FAMIS, began as a spruced-up version of the “green screen” program adopted in the 1980’s. From Day 1 it was seen as an interim step, something to use until the state got serious about Information Technology.
So, DSS put out a call for private companies to create and operate MEDES – the Missouri Eligibility & Enrollment System. Engagepoint won a $147 million contract to make MEDES happen, utilizing an existing IBM system of programs as its backbone. [ http://www.healthcareitconnect.com/missouris-medicaid-transformation-with-engagepoints-david-smith/ ]
Engagepoint never delivered a working system. In fact, after giving the company $50 million Missouri cut them loose in 2015 because officials saw no hope in the firm ever delivering what the contract required.
Worse, to me and others, Engagepoint’s code was being written and tested in Ukraine! Yes, a system holding confidential information on better than 1.5 million Missouri citizens was being crafted in Eastern Europe.
MEDES continues to limp along, work done by a series of small contracts. At the current rate of implementation, I expect MEDES to be fully operational sometime late in 2022 with a total cost beyond $250 million.
Second, in 2015 the legislature decided Missouri needed a private company to verify that those receiving benefits in Missouri actually ought to be eligible for those benefits. This could have been accomplished by having sufficient state staff to review and investigate all applications. No, giving millions of dollars a year to a third party was – to the legislature – the way to go…only it didn’t. The first two times the state opened competition for the contract they ran into problems, legal challenges and, well, stupidity. Try #3 remains stuck in bureaucratic limbo.
Rep. Marsha Haefner, R-Oakville, said she was tired of waiting
for the Missouri Department of Social Services to work through
the problems that have kept the potentially money-saving
program from moving forward.
“If it’s the last thing I do as a legislator, I want to get that
program working,” said Haefner, who will leave the House
after four terms in 2018.
Rep. Haefner leaves the House after the current special session and September’s meaningless Veto Session: the earliest her pet project could now be implemented would be July 2020.
Third comes the most recent and blatant waste of taxpayer money.
Again, essentially proclaiming that Missouri state employees are too incompetent to run MO HealthNet (aka Medicaid), the Greitens administration put out a call for private companies to assess the health care program for one in six state citizens. The first Request For Proposals quickly got recalled and a revised version went on the street. Why? The original proposal put too much emphasis on getting the best price for Missouri. [ https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-missouri-coo-s-former-company-wins-medicaid-bid-despite/article_f93e6c72-025c-53dc-a3d0-087429c57f7a.html ]
You see, the goal was not to give taxpayers better bang for the buck, no, the entire project actually was a pay-off to McKinsey & Company, a pro-privatization operator with strong Republican ties – and, the former employer of Missouri’s Chief Operating Officer Andrew (Drew) Erdmann! The revised proposal downplayed costs. That was critical since McKinsey’s bid was the second highest of five received for the Medicaid contract. As that Tony Messenger column states, McKinsey’s bid came in higher than the three companies below it, combined.
Good news: we have a new governor. Bad news: yesterday he formally endorsed giving McKinsey that contract. [ http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/2018/06/18/missouri-gov-parson-stands-by-contract-for-coos-former-employer/ ]
Remember that quote at the beginning of this piece?
The part “to pursue something because the way it occurs now is, to be blunt, unjust… is to be willing to fail”refers to the noble try, the Quixote march into Hell for a heavenly cause. If that was why DSS
had such major failures we could have hope that the process could lead to better programs, better outcomes for our neighbors.
We don’t have that. We have Republican-controlled government.
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member