February 26, 2016
Thomas A. Arnone, Director
Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders
Hall
of Records
1
East Main Street
Freehold, NJ 07728
Re: Documents Re. 2/25/16 Presentation
Proposed Outsourcing of Medicaid Cases to Xerox
Dear Mr. Arnone:
As you will please recall, I spoke before the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders on February 25, 2016 during the Board’s evening public meeting held within the Monmouth County Library. I identified myself as the president of CWA Local 1081, the Union representing the approximately 670 non-supervisory employees of the Essex County Division of Welfare. The topic of my presentation was the Board’s prospective consideration of the possible outsourcing of the Monmouth County Division of Social Services’ Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) programs to the private corporation Xerox. Xerox is the Health Benefit Coordinator (HBC) for the New Jersey Department of Human Services through its Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services (DMAHS). I spoke sincerely stridently to the Board in opposition to that august body’s approving a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the DMAHS designed to facilitate the above cite outsourcing, this in solidarity with CWA Local 1081’s Brothers and Sisters represented by CWA Local 1087 who are employees of the Monmouth County Division of Social Services.
Attached, I have provided the Board the following documentation to support my assertions made during the course of my abovementioned presentation as requested by Freeholder John P. Curley:
1. A February 22, 2014 article, written by Jennifer Robison for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, entitled “Nevada just one of many states left hanging by Xerox health-system woes”.
2. A July 2, 2014 article, written by Laura Nahmias recounting Xerox’s decidedly deficient track record managing state’s Medicaid programs in which Ms. Nahmias reported that “Xerox, which has Medicaid-related contracts in 37 states, has had significant problems with those programs in recent years. In six locations, including Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, California and Washington D.C., where the company won contracts to develop Medicaid programs, the projects have experienced delays. Xerox’s contract with Nevada to run its state health exchange was terminated for poor performance. And Xerox’s contract with the state of Texas was cancelled in May of this year over allegations the company had improperly approved $1.1 billion in Medicaid orthodontia between 2004 and 2012. Texas is suing Xerox for recovery of those payments.”
3. Pages 36 and 37 of the September 10, 2015 Final Assessment Report completed by the private company KPMG for the New Jersey Department of Human Services and its DMAHS providing an “Assessment of State of New Jersey’s Eligibility and Enrollment Process, Benefit Delivery Systems and Business Processes for Medicaid and Other Social Service Programs”. Please note that the two culled pages provide an “Analysis of Assets from CASS” (Consolidated Assistance Report System) which underscores the long-existent technical shortcomings of CASS’s software licenses and deliverables.
4. A November 28, 2014 article, written by Sue Livio for the Star Ledger, entitled “N.J. ends $118M contract designed to ease enrollment in Medicaid and other welfare programs”, which supports my stated contention to the Board that the State of New Jersey tracks its Medicaid and SNAP (Food Stamp) programs manually (and unreliably) and is therefore in dire need of a new management information system.
5. CWA Local 1081’s OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request of February 18, 2016 submitted to Morris County requesting specific documents related to the MOU entered into between the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders with the DMAHS on October 14, 2014 outsourcing the Morris County Division of Social Services’ Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) programs to the private corporation Xerox through a six-month pilot program. Please note Morris County’s attached MOU our Union had requested which is accompanied by two attachments to that concordat.
6. CWA Local 1081’s OPRA request of February 15, 2016 to the County of Essex regarding the “Essex County Division of Welfare’s Medicaid Applications”. Please note the considerable cited inaccuracies contained within an overall monthly report, entitled “New Jersey FamilyCare Statistics”, obtained through a prior OPRA request submitted to the DMAHS. The OPRA custodian for the County of Essex has requested an extension to March 16, 2016 to provide CWA Local 1081 a response, to which our Union has acceded.
Were the members of the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders to desire any further information from CWA Local 1081 regarding the information our Union has afforded the Board herein, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President, CWA Local 1081