Rhode Island
Feds say RI owes $37.3M for food stamp overpayments during UHIP debacle. What happens now?
PROVIDENCE – The federal government has stepped up its effort to recoup $37.3 million in overpayments from the state that went out from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – formerly known as food stamps – during the botched Raimondo-era rollout of a new computerized eligibility-verification system known as “UHIP.”
The Rhode Island Department of Human Services received the overpayment claim from the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service on May 15 for benefits paid out between September 2016 and December 2019, when current U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was governor.
The dunning letter, signed by FNS regional administrator Lizbeth Silbermann and first reported by WPRI, directly attributes the $37,343,809.68 in overpayments to a “major systemic failure” in “the original implementation of the RIBridges integrated eligibility system – formerly referred to as the Unified Health Infrastructure Project (UHIP).”
The McKee administration is appealing.
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“After this administration came into office, we were made aware that [the Food and Nutrition Service] would be addressing this past issue with the state at a point in the future,” Department of Human Services spokesman James Beardsworth told The Journal on Friday.
“While FNS determined the specific technical issue was officially resolved by January 2020, it has taken some time for them to issue the findings just received. DHS disputes the claim and has filed an appeal,” Beardsworth said.
“When the new contract with the system vendor was entered into by this Administration, financial protections for the State were included in the agreement,” he said, without elaboration.
The botched 2016 rollout by the Raimondo administration of the new Deloitte-designed computerized eligibility-verification system left scores of struggling Rhode Islanders without benefits and others with double payments or letters telling them their very-much-alive children were dead.
The May 15 letter was not the first notice from the federal government that it was seeking repayment. Until now, the question was how much.
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On Aug. 23, 2017, the Food and Nutrition Service notified the Rhode Island Department of Human Services that the state was liable.
In 2018, the federal agency sent the state a running list of the problems thwarting access by some of the poorest people in Rhode Island to food stamps, including: “failure to close thousands of cases because of unprocessed re-certifications and periodic reports,” and other “persistent issues … resulting in inaccurate benefit issuances to thousands of households.”
“In 2019, FNS began calculating overpayment amounts and identified an initial $30,536,981 in overpayments stemming from DHS’s failure to properly recertify benefit recipients, an incorrectly timed benefit hike and “duplicate accounts.”
FNS was initially “unable to determine a final liability amount due to limitations with the data.”
In time, DHS identified an additional $6,806,828.68 in overpayments resulting from the delayed interface with other databases showing “death matches,” for example, and failure to count cash assistance from the “RIWorks” program as “unearned income in SNAP budgets.”
Rhode Island
Authorities ID man killed in Thanksgiving crash on Mass. highway near Rhode Island
Authorities have identified the person who died in a crash involving a vehicle and a tractor trailer on a Massachusetts highway on Thanksgiving morning.
Carlos Chavez Martinez, 28, of Providence, Rhode Island was killed in the crash that happened on Interstate 95 near North Attleborough on Thursday, Nov. 27, according to the office of Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III.
At 2:30 a.m., state troopers responded to the crash involving a tractor trailer and a motor vehicle on I-95 south near mile marker 9.2 in North Attleborough, Quinn’s office said.
Officers found a white Audi sedan on the right side of the highway. The sedan had collided with a tractor trailer that was parked in a rest area. The Audi had “catastrophic damage on top of a guardrail and adjacent to the rear wheels of the trailer,” according to Quinn’s office.
The Audi’s driver, later identified as Chavez Martinez, was found unresponsive and still in the driver’s seat. Paramedics pronounced him dead at around 2:40 a.m.
The tractor trailer was driven by a 40-year-old man who did not appear to be injured, according to Quinn’s office.
The crash remains under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office along with the Massachusetts State Police.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency’s alert system down after cybersecurity incident
(WJAR) — Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency said its CodeRED notification system is down after a national cybersecurity incident.
According to officials, the OnSolve CodeRED emergency notification platform was involved in a cybersecurity incident recently.
The platform, which is provided by the vendor Crisis24, remains unavailable.
“Because RIEMA utilizes additional alert and warning systems beyond CodeRED, at no time during this incident did the state lose the capability to alert and warn the public,” RIEMA said in a statement.
RIEMA said CodeRED alert system can store the name, address, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords of users that signed up to receive the alerts.
The company told NBC 10 News’ sister station in Seattle, “We confirm that data potentially associated with the legacy OnSolve CodeRED platform has been published online following a targeted attack by an organized cybercriminal group. The attack also resulted in damage to the OnSolve CodeRED environment.”
Agency officials said state and local communities will use additional messaging platforms to issue emergency alerts.
CodeRED advised users to update their passwords if they’ve reused the same one on other accounts.
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“The vendor is working to expedite the migration of users to their new CodeRED product, which has undergone enhanced security hardening,” RIEMA said in a statement.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island secures 90-75 win against Temple
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Jonah Hinton’s 25 points helped Rhode Island defeat Temple 90-75 in a consolation game of the ESPN Events Invitational Adventure Bracket on Wednesday.
Hinton shot 8 for 11, including 7 for 10 from beyond the arc for the Rams (6-2). Tyler Cochran scored 20 points and added nine rebounds and three steals. Jahmere Tripp shot 5 of 7 from the field, including 1 for 3 from 3-point range, and went 3 for 4 from the line to finish with 14 points, while adding six rebounds.
The Owls (4-3) were led in scoring by AJ Smith, who finished with 18 points. Temple also got 11 points and seven rebounds from Derrian Ford. Masiah Gilyard finished with 11 points.
The game was close heading into the half, as Rhode Island held a two-point lead, 41-39. Hinton paced their team in scoring through the first half with 14 points. Rhode Island took a nine-point lead in the second half thanks to a 9-0 scoring run. Hinton led the Rams in second-half scoring with 11 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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