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Source: Star-News, Wilmington, N.mini storageC.Jan. 16--RALEIGH -- A Wilmington physician is among a group of North Carolina doctors who filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday seeking millions of dollars in damages from the state and its contractors over flawed computer programs that severely delayed Medicaid reimbursements.The lawsuit alleges that managers at the Department of Health and Human Services and its contractors Computer Sciences Corporation, Maximus Consulting Services and SLI Global Solutions were negligent in the launch of NCTracks. The $484 million computer system is intended to streamline the process of filing Medicaid claims and issuing payments.One of the plaintiffs in the case is Abrons Family Practice of Wilmington, the office of Dr. S. Albert Abrons.Attorney Camden Webb, who represents the practice in the lawsuit, said Abrons "suffered mightily" because of NCTracks.Webb said Abrons' practice had problems with coding using the NCTracks software. The problem was fixed once, Webb said, but then it malfunctioned again. As a result, Abrons hasn't gotten paid.Abrons' practice is representative of a large number of providers who are missing payments.State Rep. Susi Hamilton, D-New Hanover, said Delaney Radiology hasn't received Medicaid payments since October. New Hanover Regional Medical Center, she said, also was having issues. The hospital finally received some missing payments in December, but more problems have not been resolved.The cash-flow interruption has been a "huge burden" at NHRMC, said Scott Whisnant, director of government affairs. He said the hospital is still owed money for several programs, and is owed $900,000 from one particular program.The N.C. Medical Society, which represents about 12,500 physicians and physician assistants in the state, issued a statement saying that the organization strongly supports the lawsuit. The listed plaintiffs in the case are doctors from Wake, Cumberland, New Hanover, Nash, Halifax and Robeson counties.As class-action, lawyers for the group say more than 70,000 medical providers in the state suffered harm and could be entitled to damages. The lawsuit says medical providers have been "shorted" about $500 million since the system went live July 1."NCTracks has inflicted real damage on Medicaid patients and providers across the State for the last seven months," said Robert W. Seligson, the Medical Society's chief executive officer. "We understand, from our own ti儲存eless efforts to help our members overcome the system defects, that legal action may be the only remaining option to remedy the harm to the Medicaid system and get NCTracks to function as advertised."The complaint filed Thursday alleges the launch of NCTracks was a "disaster" and that the software was riddled with more than 3,200 errors. The problems led to delays of weeks and sometimes months before medical providers and hospitals received payment, forcing some businesses to take out loans to meet payroll. Some doctors say they were forced to stop treating Medicaid patients because of the delays."We're filing on behalf of health care providers, but we're also serving the low-income Medicaid recipients of North Carolina that rely on these providers to receive care," said Knicole Emanuel, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit. "Since these providers have experienced financial hardship due to NCTracks, many of them are no longer able to serve the state's most vulnerable population of health care consumers."DHHS Chief Information Officer Joe Cooper, who oversees NCTracks, said he could not comment of on pending litigation. But he reiterated several of the talking points issued by the agency in recent months to suggest NCTracks is actually performing well."As with any implementation of an IT system of this size and complexity, the transition has not been without challenges," Cooper said, according to a statement issued by the agency. "To date, the new system has processed more than 104 million claims and paid more than $5.5 billion to North Carolina healthcare providers, out-performing the 35-year old system it replaced. DHHS continues to address provider issues as they arise, and will not rest until every provider is fully transitioned to the new system."The state's doctors don't see NCTracks as an improvement. Seligson described the system as a "poorly tested, defective and very expensive software product.""The resulting problems for the State of North Carolina and its citizens have no doubt been a huge challenge for the DHHS and required additional resources that the department was not expecting to incur," Seligson said. "So far none of us received what we were promised."Staff writer Mike Voorheis and The Associated Press contributed to this story.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 Star-News (Wilmington, N.C.) Visit the Star-News (Wilmington, N.C.) at .starnewsonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉