Quality of services like health care varies widely across state, report says

02/17/2007

RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press


The cost and quality of the human services you receive in Minnesota — which include child support collection, food stamps and health care — vary widely depending on where you are receiving the services, according to a Legislative Auditor's report released today.

That means, for example, in one county only 20 percent of eligible folks actually get food support services while in another, 97 percent who are eligible get the nutrition help.

"Wide variation in program implementation raise important questions," the report said. That report is available at http://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/.

The human services system, which costs billions of dollars each year, largely relies on counties to carry out state programs. The state's largest county, Hennepin County, and more than a dozen small counties consistently get low ranking in their ability to carry out those programs, according to the report.