Report: Nevada at ‘considerable risk’ for Y2K failures

Thursday, Sept. 23, 1999 | 9:54 a.m.

Nevada was one of eight states listed as unprepared as of mid-August to administer federal health programs in a 288-page report released Wednesday in Washington, D.C., by the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.

Other states cited included Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and West Virginia. Washington, D.C., also was included.

The report was based on information compiled by the federal Health Care Financing Administration, which has been visiting states to see if they will be able to deal with potential computer problems at the beginning of the new year.

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.

"Totally absurd," Marlene Lockard, information officer of Nevada's Department on Information Technology, said of the federal agency's findings on Nevada.

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.