Report: N.M. still failing at handling benefits

Management shake-up recommended; state says it’s doing more than ever to meet requirements

A court-appointed special master says several state officials should be removed from any position overseeing the field operations of New Mexico’s food stamp and Medicaid programs.

A new report to a federal judge describes management at the Income Support Division as having made limited progress toward living up to a decades-old consent decree meant to improve the speed and service of a system that is a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans, including many of the state’s neediest residents.

The state still is not entirely in compliance with the consent decree, which requires processing applications for benefits on time, among other things.

Even after a 2016 scandal in which whistleblowers accused officials of falsifying emergency applications for food stamps to inflate families’ assets and make it appear as if the state were meeting federal deadlines for processing claims, the report found “accountability at all levels is almost nonexistent,” creating an environment where failure is an accepted part of the welfare system’s management.

The state disputes those characterizations, contending the report contains errors while arguing it is doing more to comply with the consent decree than ever before, such as processing more applications for benefits on time and cutting waits in its field offices.

But while the report stopped short of calling for placing the state’s food stamp and Medicaid programs in receivership, it did recommend a shake-up in management.

The report’s top recommendation is to remove the director of the Income Support Division from any position that directly or indirectly affects its field operations. It calls for the state to do the same with the assistant general counsel, field operations deputy director and a regional operations manager.

Lawrence Parker, appointed by a federal judge in late 2016 to serve as special master for the food stamp and Medicaid programs, acknowledged in the report filed late last month that current management had inherited a program with many problems and that it had made progress in sharing information, hiring certain staff and more quickly determining whether applicants qualify for aid.

But the deputy Cabinet secretary overseeing the Income Support Division and its staff have direct responsibility for its failures, Parker added.

Timelines and deadlines for meeting expectations have little or no relevance in the program’s business operations, processes or methods of administration, he wrote.

Parker said there is evidence to indicate the current management team lacks the knowledge, skills and abilities to appropriately steer the program or bring it into full compliance with the consent decree.

Spokespeople for Gov. Susana Martinez did not respond to a request for comment or confirm whether she would carry out Parker’s recommendation to shake up management.

But in a response filed in federal court, lawyers for the state objected to the recommendation — contending that “there is significant evidence of progress under current leadership” and that removing key staff from the benefit system’s field operations would be counterproductive.

“In general, the Special Master’s report does not reflect the historic progress the department has made in complying with the 30-year-old consent decree,” a spokeswoman for the Human Services Department said in an email on Tuesday. “We agree with the Special Master that a receiver, as the Plaintiffs have requested, is not necessary. We object to the Special Master’s findings and recommendations about HSD staff, because it is our dedicated staff that have achieved this progress, and process the benefits for approximately 900,000 New Mexicans.”

The recommendations are just the latest turn in a 1988 lawsuit filed on behalf of a single mother and janitor in Santa Fe who had applied for food stamps but ran into a bureaucratic brick wall.

Now known as Hatten-Gonzales v. Earnest, the lawsuit led to a consent decree in 1990 ordering the state’s Human Services Department to vastly improve its assistance for families in need.

Still, in 2014, a federal judge found the department was wrongly denying food and medical assistance to New Mexicans.

And in 2016, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Gonzales held Human Services Department Secretary Brent Earnest in contempt of court. That same year, a top official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture described New Mexico as having the “most fouled up” food stamp program in the country. Gonzales appointed Parker — at the state’s expense — to monitor the state’s compliance with the consent decree.

Critics say there has been little change in management or oversight of the beleaguered division.

But the department and even Parker have suggested that some of the requirements under the consent decree are not realistic or at least relevant.

For example, Parker wrote the consent decree requires the state to process 100 percent of Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applications within certain deadlines. Parker said there will always be operational and programmatic barriers to compliance beyond the Income Support Division’s control, such as changes in regulations and the behavior of applicants.

Still, Parker wrote that many states face similar budgetary and staffing issues but still manage to meet federal requirements.

And advocates have raised concerns about how the state is measuring the speed of service and point to a range of other issues besides deadlines.

“The report points to a broad spectrum of problems,” said Miles Dylan Conway, a spokesman for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 18, which represents many Income Support Division staff.

For example, lawyers involved in the case say phone calls from applicants routinely go unanswered and there is still no one handbook or guide that instructs employees on how to handle applications for benefits, leading to inconsistencies between the division’s various offices.

“There’s no central, comprehensive source of policy and procedure. … There’s no uniformity in how the offices process applications,” said Sovereign Hager, managing attorney at the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, which represents benefit applicants in the case. “That means families have a completely difference experience and may experience delays depending on where they are in the state.”

That inconsistency and a lack of training has helped drive a level of turnover within the department that Conway called “abysmal.”

“The department is going to have to make systemic changes,” said Hager, backing the management changes Parker has proposed as well as his calls for more training and bringing on experts to handle specialized issues.

Parker has called a slate of top officials from the Human Services Department and its Income Support Division to federal court in Albuquerque on Thursday for a hearing on his recommendations.