A General Accounting Office official testified Friday that the Health Care Financing Administration exaggerated how much progress the agency has made in fixing its year 2000 computer problems, but said he was nonetheless confident that HCFA is on the right track.
Joel Willemssen of the GAO gave the agency that handles all Medicare and Medicaid payments high marks, but said "the system is not Y2K compliant" and predicted it would not meet President Clinton's government-wide deadline of March 31.
Citing a Feb. 10 report, he told the House Government Reform Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee that HCFA "considerably overstated" the progress it made in bringing its "external mission-critical systems"-outside systems that process claims-into compliance. Of the 74 external systems that the federal agency reported compliant with standards at the end of last year, Willemssen said 54 still failed to comply.
Countering Willemssen's testimony was HCFA Administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle, who said her agency would make payments on time to health providers and beneficiaries by the year 2000. She said the evaluations in the agency's progress report were based on information from the people running the external systems and checked by her people. Problems were found, she said, but were "not significant enough" to declare them out of compliance.
DeParle downplayed discrepancies between her agency and the GAO, suggesting they were due to the lack of a paper trail. The GAO needs a paper trail to prove everything is in compliance with federal Y2K standards, and DeParle promised to produce one.
DeParle singled out the independent contractors and state agencies on which the agency depends as a source of concern. She related her difficulties in putting independent entities under new contracts to assure they are committed to bringing their data processing up to standard.
GAO has reported "some states and providers" will fail to do so by 2000, but HCFA has limited leverage over them, she said. The agency is exploring whether legislation is needed this year to help bring all systems in timely compliance, according to HCFA spokesman Chris Peacock.
Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Horn, R-Calif., expressed concern about the GAO's complaints, but praised the agency for its progress.
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