PROVIDENCE – Following a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payment error rate of 13.81% for federal fiscal 2018 and 11.24% in fiscal 2017, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has demanded that the R.I. Department of Human Services pay $2 million to the agency by the end of July. In response, the state has said it is appealing the fine.
The levied charge came after the federal government determined that Rhode Island has a 95% statistical probability to exceed an error rate of 105% of the national performance measure for payment error rates for two consecutive years. The national average payment error rate for federal fiscal 2018 was 6.8%.
Collaboration drives significant energy and non-energy benefits with Rhode Island Energy
With four major hospital campuses, multiple offsite facilities (ambulatory care, MRI buildings, offices) and buildings…
Learn More
The state payment is equal to the sum of the overpayment and underpayment for the federal fiscal year, with the rate a simple addition of the two percentage totals. Thus, in fiscal 2018, the state was said to have had an overpayment rate of 12.3% and an underpayment rate of 1.5%, with the $2 million figure derived from the sum of over- and underpayments. The program that has resulted in mispayments is the RIBridges system, which is part of the United Health Infrastructure Project, also known as UHIP.
On Aug. 8, the DHS filed a notice of appeal for the payment the federal government was demanding, in which it said it would supply evidence within 60 days of receiving the liability statement from the Agriculture Department, which had been dated July 3.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s office and the DHS declined to answer questions on the payment errors, subsequent charge and the appeal, passing them on to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. EOHHS provided the DHS appeal document, although the appeal contained no details as to why it was contesting the federal charges.
No matter the outcome of the appeal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, the contractor that has been working for years to implement the upgraded system for delivering social services in the state, will cover the payments to the federal government.
“This commitment is in addition to the $50 million payment negotiated as part of the recent contract [with Deloitte],” said EOHHS spokesman David Levesque.
The integration of systems resulted in systematic backlogs and errors at DHS programs at launch, as well as high costs. The state renewed its contract with Deloitte to operate RIBridges in March.
The USDA also offered the state a settlement option regarding the $2 million liability, which would require Rhode Island to invest $1 million in mutually approved activities for improving SNAP administration in the Ocean State.
The other 50% of the liability would be held and would be paid to the federal government if the state incurs a payment error liability in the federal fiscal 2019.
The settlement also would require Rhode Island to create an investment plan within 90 days of the agreement. It is not allowed to transfer or borrow funds from existing SNAP operational funds for the new investment.
Levesque said that the state’s handling of SNAP administration has been improving.
“The ongoing work to stabilize the system has focused on improving benefit accuracy, and the state believes it is on the right track,” he said. “System incidents – a key driver of quality control errors – are down. The number of new and existing incidents [when the system does not operate as expected for a client, worker or provider] has decreased by 7,138 incidents. As of July 27, open incidents totaled 511 – a 93 percent drop since December 2017.”
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor. You may reach him at Bergenheim@PBN.com.
