Nevada Taken Off List Of High-Risk States For Y2K Problems

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Humm. Guess their DMV problems aren't part of the "count and the amount."

Diane

Nevada taken off list of high-risk states for Y2K problems

Saturday, September 25, 1999

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/09/25/state1059EDT0183.DTL

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

(09-25) 07:59 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nevada is off a list of states at ``considerable risk'' for year 2000 computer failures that could interrupt Medicaid and child health insurance programs, according to a revised congressional report.

A Senate panel removed Nevada from the list after receiving new data from the federal Health Care Financing Administration.

``States listed in the original press release were taken from the OMB (White House Office of Management and Budget) 10th quarterly report, based on Aug. 13 data. New data was available from HCFA (Health Care Financing Administration),'' said a footnote in a revised announcement released Friday by state officials.

The revision came after Nevada officials angrily disputed a report earlier this week by the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.

Citing data compiled by the federal health administration during visits to Nevada in April and August, the report on Wednesday suggested the state might not be prepared to process Medicaid, child health insurance or eligibility claims beginning Jan. 1.

Some computer programs, especially older ones, are expected to fail when the date changes to 2000. Because they were written to recognize only the last two digits of a year, such programs could read the digits ``00'' as 1900 instead of 2000.

``Nevada is at low risk in all our applications except welfare eligibility,'' said Marlene Lockard, information officer of Nevada's Department of Information Technology.

The states described ``at considerable risk'' in the revised report include Alabama, Alaska, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota and Vermont.

None of those states appeared in Wednesday's announcement.

``It appears to me they just corrected their Web site,'' Lockard said.

Lockard said many states complained about the report earlier in the week, and a conference call between officials from states and the federal government is scheduled Monday to clear up the confusion.



-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 25, 1999

Answers

"New data was available from HCFA" does anybody know where this new data is? This is all I can find

http://www.hcfa.gov/y2k/medicaid/statect.htm

and this

http://www.hcfa.gov/y2k/medicaid/readyfs.htm

-- The Count of Meijer Crisco (40@cansof.course), September 25, 1999.


As a counterpoint... (or disconnect)...

Report: Nevada at `considerable risk' for Y2K failures

Thursday, September 23, 1999

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/09/23/state1105EDT0002.DTL

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

(09-23) 08:05 PDT CARSON CITY (AP) -- Nevada officials are disputing a report that says the state is at ``considerable risk'' for Y2K-related failures in handling Medicaid and children's health insurance in 2000.

[snip]

Lockard said the state had not yet completed testing on computer software when health administration officials last visited Nevada in August. Since then, tests on the software have proven satisfactory, she said.

``For them to send a bunch of bureaucrats out here and imply that we're not ready because we're not testing on the seventh day of the third month or whatever is ludicrous,'' Lockard said.

Poor people and children in Nevada will receive their federal health benefits come Jan. 1, Lockard said, ``as long as the feds fix their system. I can't guarantee the federal end. Nevada has been a leader on the year 2000 initiative and we are far ahead of many other jurisdictions, including the federal government. I'd go toe-to-toe with them any day.''

A health administration spokesman in Washington sought to allay concerns about the agency's findings, saying there probably could have been a lot of improvement since the agency's visits to Nevada in April and August.

Following their last visit Aug. 17-19, health administration officials concluded that Nevada was at ``medium risk'' of being unable to process Medicaid claims, according to Janice Wright, administrator of Nevada's Division of Health Care and Financing Policy.

``The only reason they stated for making that determination is that there were no plans for end-to-end testing (of the state's computer system to make sure the claims could be processed),'' Wright said.



-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 25, 1999.


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