Director of Social Services grilled by lawmakers

Monday, State Representatives on the Appropriations Committee asked Department of Social Services Director Brian Kinkade along with three other members of Social Services what the “glitch” actually is.

DSS has been pinning ongoing issues as a computer glitch.

ABC 17 first told you about the problems with DSS about two weeks ago, when Rocheport resident Lillian Lynn had to pay out of pocket for medications that were supposed to be covered by Medicaid.

Kinkade explained what the glitch actually is.

“New computer systems, like the one we’re implementing typically take some time to perfect. We’re in the process of implementing that system. As applications are processed- some don’t get processed correctly. Identifying those cases that don’t-gives us those clues to be able to fix them,” said Kinkade.

Issues surfaced Monday during the hearing.

DSS contracts with a company called YoungWilliams to run its call center, but it’s not going well.

A DSS spokeswoman said YoungWilliams has to provide extra incentives just to get them to come to work.

That’s leading to abandoned customer calls at a high rate- people are waiting too long and hang up.

In just one month, Social Services had 250,000 calls and 150,000 of them hung up.

Kinkade said, “When you operate a call center there will always be some calls that people for whatever reason are not going to hang on the phone and wait. That will always be a part of a call center process. I would guess over the next month or so we’ll see that abandonment rate fall off.”

Kinkade then offered advice for people needing help through DSS.

“They have access to our local offices. They should avail themselves to that and trust that as we learn of their situation we will work very quickly to resolve their issue,” said Kinkade.

During the hearing Kinkade told lawmakers they now have his attention.

He expects everything to be fixed completely by the beginning of 2016.

On Tuesday, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Sue Allen, said she didn’t get much of her questions answered.

“You know, it’s clarified some things, but they answer questions to us according to what they are allowed to answer and how they are allowed to answer it.”

She said lawmakers are going to have to start looking at the funds that go to the Department of Social services.

Allen said, “I’m going to keep asking… And I’ll call Brian Kinkade in another week or so because I’m going to want updates as it moves forward.”