For Docs, Hospitals And State, Growing Pains In Medicaid IT

Five months after going live with some functionality problems, North Carolina’s new Medicaid information management system is still struggling to get up to speed, leaving some providers with headaches and putting pressure on a certification timeline, an audit has found.

NC Tracks, the state Department of Health and Human Services’ new IT and claims system, went live in July, expected to pay about $12 billion annually to more than 77,000 providers serving 1.5 million residents on Medicaid.

Between July and early November, the Office of the State Auditor, Beth Wood, found more than 3,200 defects that DHHS staff and staff from contractor Computer Sciences Corporation are still working to fix, including a number of key business processes that may have been working varyingly since the go-live, in addition to capabilities that still have to be added.

The system’s federal certification — crucial for the state to be able to qualify for 90 percent federal cost coverage — remains uncertain, according to Wood. And though it’s improving, some providers are still experiencing problems, including inaccurate reimbursements.