There are several articles in the media today on Medicaire and Y2K. Here's one of them:

"Medicaire Not Ready for Y2K"

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/medicare990226.html

Medicare Not Ready for Y2K

Millennium Bug Could Cause Havoc for Millions

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 26  The year 2000 computer bug could cause havoc for the nations Medicare system, interrupting health benefits for millions of old and sick Americans, congressional auditors said today. Joel Willemssen of Congress General Accounting Office (GAO) told lawmakers that the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which helps pay medical bills for more than 70 million people, was nowhere near ready for the so-called millennium problem, which could generate computer system crashes and errors next Jan. 1. There is a high probability that there will be some system failures, Willemssen told the House subcommittee on government management, information and technology. Possible Delays As a result of these problems, GAO said, billions of dollars in federal Medicare and state-administered Medicaid health benefits could be delayed, miscalculated or go unpaid, leaving the poor, elderly and sick without the money to pay their doctors bills. HCFA, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said GAO was overstating the risks. I want to personally assure beneficiaries that the care they have come to expect from our programs will continue throughout the millennium transition, the agencys administrator, Nancy-Ann DeParle, told the subcommittee. The problem is that many computers as now configured cannot recognize the year 2000.

Lagging Behind To save expensive disk space, early programmers tracked dates with only the last two numbers of the year. If not fixed, many computers will read 00 as 1900. This could cause many computers to go haywire come January 1, 2000. According to lawmakers and congressional auditors, the Health Care Financing Administration is one of several federal agencies lagging behind in year 2000 computer readiness. A congressional report released on Monday singled out the Federal Aviation Administration, the State Department and the Agency for International Development for failing to prepare. GAO said the risk at HCFA was particularly acute. More than 150 different computer systems are used by the agency in administering the Medicare program.

More Than a Billion Claims As the nations largest health care insurer, Medicare expects to process more than a billion claims and pay $288 billion in benefits annually by 2000. The consequences, then, of its systems not being year 2000 compliant could be enormous, Willemssen said. GAO said Medicaida joint federal-state program supported by HCFA and administered by the stateswas also at risk because some states were falling behind in upgrading their computer systems. Medicaid provides about $160 billion in health coverage for 36 million low-income people, including over 17 million children. DeParle said fixing the administrations computers for the Year 2000 bug was her top priority. She said progress was being made and many critical systems were already prepared. I am confident that HCFAs own year 2000 systems issues will be resolved well before January 1, 2000, she said. Willemssen said HCFA was overstating its readiness. He said many of these computer systems were still vulnerable to crash, and urged DeParle to improve her contingency planning.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 27, 1999

Answers

And just to be sure both sides are presented: htt p://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/0222/web-hcfa-2-24-99.html

HCFA chief says feds ready for Y2K, but states may need help

The head of the Health Care Financing Administration today told a House committee that Medicare payments will be disbursed on time next year despite concerns that the agency is behind schedule in making Year 2000 fixes.

Nancy Ann DeParle, HCFA's administrator, told the House Ways and Means Committee that all 25 of the agency's internal mission-critical systems are Year 2000-compliant, three months before the governmentwide March 31 deadline set by the Office of Management and Budget.

DeParle said 54 of the 78 external mission-critical systems, many of which handle the billions of dollars in medical claims and payments for Medicare beneficiaries, are compliant. DeParle said all mission-critical systems will be compliant before Jan. 1, 2000.

For months Congress and the General Accounting Office have cited HCFA as one of the few federal agencies that are at the highest risk of not having their systems ready for 2000. For HCFA, the consequences of not having computers ready for the new millennium could be dire because the agency manages, through a network of independent insurance providers, about $250 billion worth of claims and medical bills for the Medicare health program for the elderly.

DeParle said 58 percent of hospitals are submitting Medicare claims forms that are Year 2000-compliant. Last year HCFA decided to send its own independent verification and validation contractors to states because DeParle was concerned that the states were not thoroughly fixing and testing their systems. After evaluating 14 states, DeParle said most state systems are in good shape, but she is concerned about the readiness of their payment systems. She plans to give more details about the payment systems at a House hearing scheduled for Feb. 26.

After data from all the states is reviewed, DeParle said she will share the results with Congress to determine what assistance states may need.

"I must be clear, however, about what HCFA can and cannot do," she said. "HCFA pays bills. We do not have the authority, ability or resources to step in and fix systems for others, such as states or providers. And that leads to a rather substantial concern for which we need the assistance of Congress and others to address."

Joel Willemssen, director of civil agencies information systems at the General Accounting Office, said HCFA has made progress in fixing computer systems, but it overstates the facts. Some renovation and a significant amount of testing must still be performed this year, he said.

"Until HCFA completes its planned rectification between July and November 1999, the final status of the agency's Year 2000 compliance will be unknown," he said.

HCFA has gone through one round of testing mission-critical systems and is expected to retest more systems July 1.

Hoffmeister

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), February 27, 1999.

Less see now, before we get into the details of these fine reports, let's review just who it is that's reporting.

1. Joel Willemssen of Congress General Accounting Office

and

2. Nancy Ann DeParle, HCFA's head administrator

Just thought those names and titles should be set off for condiseration and review before we get involved in the details.

-- Greybear

- Got Sources?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), February 27, 1999.

Should be interesting to know IF they do get it all fixed in time how they plan to work around the possibility of no "snail mail".

Hope they allow for that possibility in their contingency planning.

Someone also told me a while back that some people might have to burn the midnight oil and use the faithful paper, pen and ink for a while.

I sure hope all these agencies are stocking up on loads of candles, truck loads of paper, and lots and lots of writing utensils.

Just seems even more and more hopeless as we sail ever closer to Y2K.

-- Snail (mail@thereadynot.com), February 27, 1999.

Here's an excerpt from a December article on Medicaire:

http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1998/1221/fcw-newshcfa-12-21-98.html

DECEMBER 21, 1998 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- HCFA: We're ready for Year 2000

BY L. SCOTT TILLETT (scott_tillett@fcw.com) AND ORLANDO De BRUCE (orlando_debruce@fcw.com)

Responding to claims by Congress and the General Accounting Office, a top technology official at the Health Care Financing Administration said last week that HCFA and the contractors that process Medi-care claims will have computer systems Year 2000-compliant by the end of March.

"Despite what you may read in the [trade newspapers]...we will be ready," John Van Walker, HCFA's senior adviser for technology, told a group of information technology industry officials at a briefing sponsored by the Bethesda, Md., chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. "We are absolutely positive that our partners will have the systems in place."

HCFA has contracts with more than 60 intermediaries, such as insurance companies, to process some $250 billion worth of claims and medical bills for the Medicare health program for the elderly.

[snip]

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 27, 1999.

And then compare the last link I posted with this one...

http://www.ntgov.com/gcn/gcn/1999/january11/13a.htm

HCFA is fully focused on year 2000 repairs, HHS IT chief says By Christopher J. Dorobek GCN Staff After a poor start on year 2000 work and with much still to be done, the Health Care Financing Administration acknowledges that it is unlikely that all HCFA systems will be ready in time.

Despite the setbacks, HCFA is making progress, said Neil J. Stillman, deputy assistant secretary for IRM at the Health and Human Services Department.

The late start and the complexity of HCFAs problem has made the task more difficult, he said, but added, I think were optimistic that were going to get most of the way there.

HCFAs implementation plan shows an increasing number of systems will be ready in the coming months, Stillman said at the recent Federation of Government Information Processing Councils Acquisition Management Conference in Falls Church, Va. The agency will roll out the corrected systems in groups.

But Joel Willemssen, director of civil agencies information systems accounting for the General Accounting Offices Information Management Division, questioned the wisdom of multiple simultaneous systems implementations.

The ramp-up we wouldnt necessarily view as a good point, he said.

HCFAs job is tough because it must fix not only its systems but ensure the readiness of systems run by 70 contractors and used by more than 900,000 providers. The Medicare system, which processes nearly 17 million transactions a day and 1 billion claims each year, depends on a range of external systems including those run by state Medicaid programs.

[snip]

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 27, 1999.

From above: " DeParle said fixing the administrations computers for the Year 2000 bug was her top priority. She said progress was being made and many critical systems were already prepared. I am confident that HCFAs own year 2000 systems issues will be resolved well before January 1, 2000, she said. "

Sorry - I'm simply not convinced they know who they are dealing with, the specifics of each company and state agency, and the specifics (the real details) of exactly their own programs. Critical or regular - I see nothing in these quotes except "we are sure" "we are confident" "we will be ready" etc from the Medicare officials.

No test dates. No integrated testing discussed. No quantifiable numbers anywhere. Social Security - actually a much simpler system than these guys with their multiple contract and data exchange sub-contractors, took almost eight years to fix itself. I just don't see it happening. It might - but let's see what happens when Clinton declares the federal government "completely ready" on March 31. These guys won't be ready by then - may not be ready for months thereafter.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.R@csaatl.com), February 28, 1999.

"Despite the setbacks, HCFA is making progress, said Neil J. Stillman, deputy assistant secretary for IRM at the Health and Human Services Department.

The late start and the complexity of HCFAs problem has made the task more difficult, he said, but added, I think were optimistic that were going to get most of the way there.

MOST OF THE WAY THERE???

Isn't that like being "a little bit pregnant", in that you either ARE or you're NOT, especially in terms of domino-effect failures.

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@ptd.net), February 28, 1999.

Also see my article, Medicar e Still at Risk Despite HCFA Progress...

Scott

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), February 28, 1999.