Dan Shewan

Review of State of Rhode Island Departme...

Of all Rhode Island's state agencies, DHS is by fa...

Of all Rhode Island's state agencies, DHS is by far the most inept, and that's saying something in a tiny state already infamous for the staggering incompetence and corruption of its government.

I won't go into too many details, but we needed to speak with DHS urgently about the status of my wife's health insurance (a situation we'd already been arguing with Healthsource RI about for weeks). Not only did DHS fail to process her Medicaid application AT ALL, but I also had to waste THREE HOURS of my time on hold, all for nothing. I never even got to speak to someone, besides the ornery "operator" who answered my initial call as if she'd just had her pedicure interrupted by a telemarketer.

Eventually I just gave up, as it was clear that none of the overpaid, underworked staff at DHS was going to actually pick up the damned phone and do their job. Ordinarily I'd suggest DHS hire more staff (not exactly difficult in a state with a terrible economy and plenty of people looking for work), but since the state can't even balance its budget, there's probably not much point.

It seems every government agency in this pathetic state is engaged in a frantic race to the bottom to see who can be the most singularly useless agency in Rhode Island. Well done, DHS -- you "win." My wife still doesn't have an answer about whether she even has health insurance, and hasn't been able to fill a prescription for weeks, all thanks to the quite frankly incredible ineptitude of a crucial state agency that thousands of people rely on for food and medicine.

If you're reading this, I sincerely hope you have better "luck" than I did.