Medicaid reimbursements are being cut, and care providers say they are having trouble obtaining the money they are owed, but at least it looked like the Kansas Department of Health and Environment was making progress on a huge backlog of applications for KanCare, the state’s Medicaid system.

Unfortunately, even that progress turns out to be a big mistake.

Last February, the state reported that problems with a new electronic system being used to determine eligibility for Medicaid benefits had resulted in a backlog of more than 18,000 applications waiting to be processed. About 7,750 of those applications had been awaiting processing for longer than 45 days, the federal time limit set for determining eligibility.

To deal with the backlog, KDHE hired temporary workers and reported steady decreases in the number of unprocessed applications. By May, the department reported that it had reduced the backlog to just under 3,500 applications.

But earlier this month, state officials discovered that the company that had been put in charge of implementing the new eligibility system had a problem with its reporting. Instead of about 3,500 unprocessed applications, it turns out the state has nearly 15,400 unprocessed applications. The number of applications that had awaited action for more than 45 days jumped from 2,081 to 10,961.

Kansas has some of the most restrictive Medicaid eligibility requirements in the nation. Enrollment is limited to pregnant women, children, seniors and disabled people who meet strict income guidelines. For instance, a single parent with two children must have an income that’s less than one-third the federal poverty level; that’s $637 per month. And reports are surfacing that even people who meet that standard are mistakenly being denied Medicaid benefits by the new electronic eligibility system.

Even though Kansas isn’t the only state having problems with their eligibility systems, the latest report is beyond disappointing. The state has decided to withhold a $750,000 payment to Accenture, the firm that undercounted the backlog, but that’s a relatively small penalty compared to the company’s $264 million contract, which runs through 2021.

Far more important than the monetary cost of this situation is the human toll. Outside contractor or no, the buck stops with the government of Kansas, which clearly is letting down people who qualify for and need its help.