Republican candidate for governor Allan Fung on Thursday criticized Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo’s oversight of the state’s IT system for human service benefits, while Raimondo’s office pointed to new details on the state’s unemployment rate.
During a news conference outside the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Fung said troubles with the IT system, known as UHIP, remain so severe that he’s asking a federal HHS inspector general to audit the system.
Fung made a series of charges: error rates for the SNAP food assistance program are among the highest in the nation; a serious backlog exists in the Medicaid estate recovery division in HHS’ legal services; and he said a current and former state worker raised questions about the process for inputting Social Security information at a Providence office of state contractor Deloitte.
If elected, Fung said, he will create triage teams to get an accurate accounting of funds owed to nursing homes and visiting nursing associations, and also institute a paper backup of UHIP meant to improve timeliness.
The cost of UHIP has spiraled over time to more than $600 million, although much of that is paid by the federal government.
Mike Raia, a spokesman for Raimondo’s campaign, rejected Fung’s criticism.
“UHIP is turning the corner,” Raia said. “Applications are being completed more quickly, Rhode Island is making payments faster than other states in the region, and system errors are declining. Governor Raimondo doesn’t run away from challenges. She acknowledges the mistakes that were made and what she learned from them. She made leadership changes, she hasn’t paid Deloitte in a year and a half, and she has held them accountable to the tune of $86 million.
Separately, the state Department of Labor and Training reported that the unemployment rate for September was 3.9 percent, the lowest in Rhode Island since 1989.
“The state’s job count held steady at 502,100, and the number of jobs in Rhode Island has now been above 500,000 for four consecutive months,” the governor’s office said in a news release. “Since Governor Gina Raimondo has been in office, the state has added more than 19,000 new jobs. Meanwhile, the number of employed Rhode islanders has increased to 539,800, the highest employment level since October 2007.”
Separately, independent candidate Joe Trillo held a news conference outside the state prison to charge that Raimondo’s administration does not fully cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
