SoonerCare Computer Crash Left Many Tulsa Health Care Providers In A Bind

At a time when Oklahoma is seeing a record enrollment in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.okhca.org/" target="_blank">SoonerCare</a>, the program is catching heat from heath care providers for an online program vital to doctors.

Wednesday, February 15th 2012, 8:05 pm

By: News On 6


At a time when Oklahoma is seeing a record enrollment in SoonerCare, the state program is catching heat from heath care providers for an online program vital to doctors.

During the update over the weekend the system crashed, leaving health care providers high and dry.

SoonerCare is Oklahoma's version of Medicaid. It pays either part or all of the health care bills for families who can't afford it.

But when the system went down this weekend, some families had to rely on the generosity of doctors to get medicine they needed.

With more than 650,000 families eligible for SoonerCare in Oklahoma, it's safe to say that the government funded program is a lifeline for the state.

Doctors use an online website to coordinate with pharmacies and check the eligibility of families that come in for care.

But during a system-wide update over the weekend, programmers ran into some "bugs," shutting down the program for longer than expected.

"It's actually quite unusual. This is the first time that we've had any problems with the system," said Dr. Scott Cyrus.

The inability to check the system caused a number of problems for clinics across the state, including the ability of families to get prescriptions from the pharmacy.

"Our people are basically working as many hours as they can to try and figure out this problem and get it resolved," said Jo Kilgore of The Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which administers the systems.

"Our main objective is to make sure that our providers get paid, and our members get services," he said.

Kilgore says the OHCA tried to warn providers about the upcoming changes.

"We sent what we call global messages to providers; we posted it on our public website; we posted it on our secure website; we did fax blasts; we did social media," Kilgore said.

But some doctors said they were never told about the changes, so it's up to their discretion to provide health care or not.

"That doesn't mean they won't get seen, we'll go ahead a see them if they're sick, regardless of whether they can pay or not," said Pediatrician Dr. D.I. Wilkinson.

Dr. Wilkinson has practiced medicine for over 40 years and says despite the problems, he won't let families in need--especially children--go without proper medical care.

"We realize that children get sick faster and more acutely, so we have to have the system up and running every day," Dr. Wilkinson said.

Dr. Wilkinson estimates that in his clinic alone, more than 200 people were affected by this weekend's upgrade. The program is now up and running again.

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