A recently released audit of the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Services showed repeated problems from the previous administration. The newly appointed secretary of the agency spoke before a panel of state lawmakers on Tuesday about the audit.
Felicia Norwood wasn't the secretary of HFS when recording mistakes were made that allowed dead people and duplicate enrollees to receive payments for medical assistance. She made that point clear during a legislative hearing designed to address the inaccuracies.
"I do think it's a combination of people, technology and processes that we need to put into place as I like to say to 'up our game' because this is a 20 billion dollar agency," she said. "We want to get everyone committed to raising the bar here with respect to those types of issues, and I know it's hard work, but it's absolutely something that we have to be committed to doing."
Norwood is Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's choice to lead the agency. She started in January, shortly before the audit was released.
Norwood put blame on outdated technology and human error for the mistakes. She says she will make sure there is more accountability in the management of the agency.
