Indiana welfare changes headed to old-system area

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's automation of welfare intake will reach a milestone next week when it expands for the first time into areas still operating only with paper-intensive, face-to-face contact between case workers and clients receiving food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits.

The Family and Social Services Administration said Tuesday it has federal approval to expand its so-called hybrid system of intake to 13 northern counties including the cities of Gary, South Bend, Elkhart, Rochester and Rensselaer.

Those 13 counties and 20 others in central Indiana never received the call centers, document imaging and other automation that FSSA began rolling out in 2007. Problems with the project led Gov. Mitch Daniels to fire lead contractor IBM Corp. in 2009 and FSSA to switch to a hybrid system combing automation with face-to-face contact.