Samantha Liss

But similar hospital consolidations in Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina have resulted in government reports documenting diminished care.

In Terre Haute, Ind., two rival hospitals want to merge, a move that supporters say will save patients money and help people live longer.

Deloitte , a global consultancy that reported revenue last year of $65 billion, pulls in billions of dollars from states and the federal government for supplying technology it says will modernize Medicaid

Deloitte-run systems have generated incorrect notices to Medicaid beneficiaries, sent their paperwork to the wrong addresses and been frozen for hours at a time.

Deloitte touts its sophisticated, efficient systems for screening Medicaid eligibility, but a KFF Health News investigation of eligibility systems found widespread problems.

The computer systems run by the consulting giant Deloitte that millions of Americans rely on for Medicaid and other government benefits are prone

Medicaid beneficiaries risk losing access to health care and food due to error-prone state eligibility systems.

The computer systems run by the consulting giant Deloitte that millions of Americans rely on for Medicaid and other government benefits are prone

Beverly Likens, with the help of a lawyer, had her Medicaid benefits quickly reinstated, but that was far from the end of the saga. The problem that caused her benefits to lapse was resolved in April — 10 months after it arose. (Veronica Turner/KFF Health News/TNS)

The computer systems run by the consulting giant Deloitte that millions of Americans rely on for Medicaid and other government benefits are prone to errors that can take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to update. While states wait...