{"id":66524,"date":"2019-09-13T19:17:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T01:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/software-glitches-cause-heavy-backlog-for-food-medical-assistance\/"},"modified":"2019-09-14T01:17:20","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T01:17:20","slug":"software-glitches-cause-heavy-backlog-for-food-medical-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/software-glitches-cause-heavy-backlog-for-food-medical-assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Software glitches cause heavy backlog for food, medical assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Issues
Issues with new state-installed software at La Plata County\u2019s Department of Human Services are delaying the distribution of food, medical and financial assistance.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Glitches in new software installed by the state of Colorado are causing some La Plata County residents to receive medical, financial and food assistance weeks, and sometimes months, late.<\/p>\n

Martha Johnson, director of La Plata County\u2019s Department of Human Services, said the department has used a database called the \u201cColorado Benefits Management System,\u201d or CBMS for short, for years to determine if a resident is eligible for benefits.<\/p>\n

Typically, a resident who seeks food, financial or medical benefits will come into the county\u2019s DHS office and their pertinent information \u2013 such as demographics, income, etc. \u2013 is entered into the CBMS database, which in turn, calculates whether they qualify for benefits.<\/p>\n

The old CBMS, Johnson said, worked well from the staff\u2019s point of view, but state officials recently decided to update the 15-year-old system to make it more compatible with updated technology.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 26, Johnson said the new software was installed, and then crashed the entire day.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we lost an entire day of work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Around noon Aug. 27, the system was back up, but it worked only sporadically. Johnson said that ever since, the new software is prone to unpredictable crashes and glitches, and it\u2019s causing work to pile up.<\/p>\n

For example, when someone applies for benefits, the county\u2019s DHS has to start an online process to file an application. Last week, Johnson said that part of the software wasn\u2019t working at all, so people who came in to apply for benefits couldn\u2019t get the process started.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the part of the new system where DHS staff members enter a person\u2019s information and determine eligibility wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been one of the major challenges with the system,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cOn different days, different pieces don\u2019t work. And it\u2019s causing a lot of delays for our community citizens to access their benefits. Sometimes, we can\u2019t just do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman with Colorado\u2019s Department of Human Services deferred all questions about the software glitches to the Colorado Governor\u2019s Office of Information Technology. A spokeswoman with that department did not return requests seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Johnson said the state is constantly working on the issues, but that doesn\u2019t do much good for county residents who may need food or medical assistance immediately.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s DHS was already suffering with a backlog<\/a> because of staffing issues, namely high turnover, and a dwindling budget.<\/p>\n

Unlike other county departments, the services that Human Services provide are mandated by the state and federal government. As a result, the state covers about 80% of the department\u2019s $6 million operating budget.<\/p>\n

But La Plata County struggles to cover the cost of the remaining 20%, which has ripple effects on the department and, in turn, the county\u2019s most vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n

About 10% of the population \u2013 or 5,500 people \u2013 in La Plata County lives in poverty. Johnson said there are more than 6,600 households with Medicaid assistance and about 1,860 households that use the food-assistance program.<\/p>\n

With the added complications from the new software, Johnson said people who received benefits, but need their application renewed, might have to wait two to three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is really terrible for people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Johnson said new staff members are being hired and trained to help catch up on the workload. Current employees are working overtime. Once the software issues are fixed, the county\u2019s DHS should be able to reduce the backlog, though Johnson said she was informed by the state there is no timeline for the fixes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s very difficult for people right now,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are really doing all we can to deal with the backlog \u2026 but we know that doesn\u2019t help in the moment when people are relying on those benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

instances, benefits could take two to three months to receive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1512,1745,2512],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-government","tag-la-plata-county-officials","tag-medicaid"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66524"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}