The state could lose $170 million over the next two years in fraud and abuse at the Department of Social Services. But Governor Dannel Malloy said the state has hired an outside contractor to help stem the losses.
The department spends about 16 percent of the state's annual budget, but it's technological systems are famously outdated, causing backlogs in things like Medicaid enrollments. Malloy said he's trying to change that.
"I think it's going extremely well," Malloy said during an appearance on WNPR's Where We Live, "but I think the system was extremely bad. It had an effective technological date of 1989. None of us are stuck in 1989 when it comes to technology."
Here's how the governor explained it.
"I'll tell you how bad the technology was," he said. "If the system sent out a check to Harry S. Truman at one address in Bridgeport, and H.S. Truman, and S. Truman, and H. Truman sent four checks in a day, there was nothing in the system that would catch that as fraud, even though it was going to the same address. That's how bad that technology was."
The department's backlogs have landed the state in court on various occasions. But Malloy said fixing the technology will help improve things and end fraud.
"We have entered into a contract which will use the technology that we've put in place and the system we've put in place with their ways of discovering fraud to make those kinds of savings," he said. "And we're doing that at a relatively low price."
The company, Texas-based 21CT, was selected in a competitive bidding process.