A state computer contract that’s now 5-years behind schedule has received another extension from the executive council.
At an original price of $61 million NH’s agreement with Affiliated Computer Systems, or ACS was the largest computer contract in state history.
Under the deal ACS was to create a system to track Medicaid payment and information.
After numerous problems and several contract amendments, Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas says he believes ACS, now a subsidiary of Xerox, will have the system up and running on April 1st.
"We still have a number of issues that we are working through. We sat down with the federal government and showed then what the capabilities are. There are a number of variables that I call environmental variables."
Those variables have included the need to add features to comply with new federal requirements to better track Medicaid spending.
Toumpas blames this latest delay on the need to modify the program to fit the Medicaid managed care law NH enacted last year.
Implementation of that program is also running well behind schedule, and its delay makes it unlikely that the state will ever realize the millions in savings lawmakers banked on in the current state budget.
