Outsourcing Mmj Application Processing To Address The 22,000 Application Backlog

[Weed Warrior]

The legislature took action to address the backlog of applications by voting unanmously to place the processsing of new MMJ paitents out for general bid for the private sector. MDCH has failed to comply with the 20 day time period as required by law. If California can process their cards in 7 days, then Michigan has no excuses to offer but to get the job done.

 

The article below can be viewed by clicking herehttp://friendsofgeorge.blogspot.com/2010/07/house-committee-votes-to-outsource.html

[imiubu]

Thanks for the post.

My Q? is:

Why must this be

outsourced to the

"highest bidder"

instead of a MI

based Co. that may

not bid as "high"

thus keeping the

job here in MI?

peace

[Weed Warrior]

Thanks for the post.

My Q? is:

Why must this be

outsourced to the

"highest bidder"

instead of a MI

based Co. that may

not bid as "high"

thus keeping the

job here in MI?

peace

 

Actually the bid goes to the lowest bidder and when things go out to public bid, anyone from anywhere can bid on the project. The are supposed to have a preference for Michigan companies first. If no local company can do the job then they take outstate bids.

[imiubu]

Actually the bid goes to the lowest bidder and when things go out to public bid, anyone from anywhere can bid on the project. The are supposed to have a preference for Michigan companies first. If no local company can do the job then they take outstate bids.

Thanks for clarifying!

[Kevin]

Would like to see a patient owned company get the printing gig.

[Ms Chocolate]

On one hand, the outsourcing is a good thing. By handing the job of processing applications to an outside outfit, the processing and delivery can be done within the twenty day prescribed by law. On the other hand, another public entity is being privatized.

 

Is this outsourcing a temporary or permanent move? Can police departments or sub-agencies of said departments bid to process the names of this list ( I guess this would be the group that creates the list). How will the names be protected?

[Weed Warrior]

On one hand, the outsourcing is a good thing. By handing the job of processing applications to an outside outfit, the processing and delivery can be done within the twenty day prescribed by law. On the other hand, another public entity is being privatized.

 

Is this outsourcing a temporary or permanent move? Can police departments or sub-agencies of said departments bid to process the names of this list ( I guess this would be the group that creates the list). How will the names be protected?

 

The lenght of time is determined by the priority that the leadership places on the process. Private firms have to sign no disclosure contracts and are obligated by law not to divulge any HIPPA information. Unisys and IBM have those contracts already in place because Government does not manufacture the hardware and some of the software. California does it in 7 days...... Michigan must do better than 120 days!

[Ms Chocolate]

From read about “limited-education” MD’s ( http://www.michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/20617-ever-heard-of-this-education-limited-drs-cant-sign/ ), I have another concern.

 

Well the MDCH review all the apps, then outsource them for printing, or will this other company do everything?

[Greg Starks]

The precise decisions as to the nature of the RFP have not, to my knowledge, been developed and released. HB 5902 has been moved by the committee to the House floor, where it awaits action, which will occur eventually. Then it must move to the Senate, and onto the Governor's desk. The 22-0-4 vote in committee sends a strong message to the House, which will hopefully vote overwhelmingly as well. The test is the Senate, which had privatization on Oct 1 as a part of its MDCH appropriations boilerplate. The differences in the versions coming out of each chamber will be worked out in Conference Committee. If both chambers pass it by wide margins, the Governor will either sign it or likely be overridden. Should be interesting.

 

But it is also a needless shame. I don't see any reason for why the Department couldn't get this done on its own. If it had 20 FTEs, it could easily accommodate the current caseload, and probably up to about 60,000 patients. If patient registrations continue to increase to upwards of 250,000, we'll probably need 50ish FTEs in the Department to handle the caseloads in a manner compliant with the law (as most of their work would revolve around renewals and require far less time per patient than would original registrations). No matter the number needed, there is no reason to believe that a private firm would not perform its tasks more efficiently than the MMP, since the MDCH is statutorily mandated to perform certain tasks and functions. Not to mention all of the valid privacy concerns, although I am far from convinced the MDCH really cares about it, either.

 

So the AG was presumably asked about the degree to which the statute actually bound the MDCH to perform certain services, and which were privatizable. He has not obliged this request promptly, probably for political reasons. Asssuming there will be a response before the August primary is probably wishful thinking, so they moved forward.

 

The correct policy is to have a highly-competent, fully-staffed Department, incentivized to perform their set tasks both effectively and efficiently, and fully comply with the law and rules while doing so. In my opinion, particularly in light of the myriad anecdotes of data errors in renewals, I am afraid that none of these conditions are being met at this time, nor have they ever.

 

In any case, we expect to bring up Ms. Chocolate's question, and hope to have some sort of meaningful answer as regards the RFP sometime this week. There are a lot of serious questions that need to be answered, we are looking into a number of them immediately. We'll keep you posted.

[+Silverblue]

With all the foot dragging going on I can only assume the AG and governor are NOT happy with this MMj law, neither is the MDCH, my reasoning is, IF THEY WERE in favor of it, a LOT MORE would get accomplished, AND the arrests of legal patients and cg's would stop- IF they were SERIOUS about protecting legal applicants, there would never have been any arrests of legal applicants.. Our opponents seem to want to see it fail, and are doing everything they can to make it fail, then, of course, they'll blame the people, pointing their puny fingers at the ones abusing the law, lumping everyone into that category, I'd bet. I know all too well how this society works, they say one thing, then do the opposite in many cases, they don't think twice about punishing the innocent and can't seem to distinguish between who should be punished and who shouldn't. It sure seems obvious to me. It sure seems like anything the PEOPLE want is a struggle. Yeah, we VOTED for it, but ENFORCING it is an entirely different matter- this INCLUDES protecting legal applicants. The whole situation is unacceptable. I'd like to know the governor's official view on this, wanna bet she's against it? Even if she says she'll follow the law, watch her words, listen/read them very carefully, read between the lines; same with others, like the representative who echoes the law, speaks of medical benefits, says he's not an expert so he'll have to consult doctors or some "authority", but never clearly says he's for it personally, yet patients' views are not taken seriously by many, due to the stigma; hey, if it weren't for those recreational users, we wouldn't know Mj even has medicinal properties, unless we bothered to look at any evidence of its medicinal value throughout history. So yes, we have to get enough scientists to see the proof in it, then the doctors will fall in line, not all will, but enough will, then more lawmakers will, which will strengthen our cause.

 

Sb

[+Silverblue]

On another note, I know it's impossible to get every lawmaker and leo, agencies, etc., to believe in a law in order to properly carry it out but whether or not they agree with it they're here to serve the People and if they can't do their job they should be OUT. Many reps with a serious conflict of interest, might abstain from voting, but they represent US, not their personal agendas. If I were a rep I know it'd be difficult for me to carry out a law I don't believe in, but if I knew the majority of people in my district wanted it, I'd have to vote for it, right? Statistics, evidence, etc., can be manipulated, so it's often hard to know what to believe. Some claim benefits of something, others claim harm, but when there's enough overwhelming eveidence of benefits outweighing harm, even those against it should at least consider the proof. All I know is, Mj never killed anyone.

 

Sb

[Guest Wayne]

What is it that makes others believe Mr. Cox is simply ignoring the new law? Primaries aren't over yet. Should he win paying for political press coverage and advertising are not cheap. Free press, is of course free press. Now how could an Attorney General, running for Governor get front page free press? I can't think of a single thing! Especially anything involving our community. Can you?

[Weed Warrior]

Would like to see a patient owned company get the printing gig.

 

 

I would like to see that too...

[Weed Warrior]

The precise decisions as to the nature of the RFP have not, to my knowledge, been developed and released. HB 5902 has been moved by the committee to the House floor, where it awaits action, which will occur eventually. Then it must move to the Senate, and onto the Governor's desk. The 22-0-4 vote in committee sends a strong message to the House, which will hopefully vote overwhelmingly as well. The test is the Senate, which had privatization on Oct 1 as a part of its MDCH appropriations boilerplate. The differences in the versions coming out of each chamber will be worked out in Conference Committee. If both chambers pass it by wide margins, the Governor will either sign it or likely be overridden. Should be interesting.

 

But it is also a needless shame. I don't see any reason for why the Department couldn't get this done on its own. If it had 20 FTEs, it could easily accommodate the current caseload, and probably up to about 60,000 patients. If patient registrations continue to increase to upwards of 250,000, we'll probably need 50ish FTEs in the Department to handle the caseloads in a manner compliant with the law (as most of their work would revolve around renewals and require far less time per patient than would original registrations). No matter the number needed, there is no reason to believe that a private firm would not perform its tasks more efficiently than the MMP, since the MDCH is statutorily mandated to perform certain tasks and functions. Not to mention all of the valid privacy concerns, although I am far from convinced the MDCH really cares about it, either.

 

So the AG was presumably asked about the degree to which the statute actually bound the MDCH to perform certain services, and which were privatizable. He has not obliged this request promptly, probably for political reasons. Asssuming there will be a response before the August primary is probably wishful thinking, so they moved forward.

 

The correct policy is to have a highly-competent, fully-staffed Department, incentivized to perform their set tasks both effectively and efficiently, and fully comply with the law and rules while doing so. In my opinion, particularly in light of the myriad anecdotes of data errors in renewals, I am afraid that none of these conditions are being met at this time, nor have they ever.

 

In any case, we expect to bring up Ms. Chocolate's question, and hope to have some sort of meaningful answer as regards the RFP sometime this week. There are a lot of serious questions that need to be answered, we are looking into a number of them immediately. We'll keep you posted.

 

The department leaders want the program to fail.... They will never allocate resources unless forced upon them....... If it was in Corrections for another jail then you would get the 50 FTE's otherwise that is just a pipe dream..