LINCOLN- The rollout in January of a new payment portal for mental health care providers treating Nebraskans on probation came with technical challenges that went undetected for more than two months and left some health care providers unpaid for longer. Nebraska's probation office pays around $50 million each year to state service providers that evaluate, treat, counsel and sometimes house probationers who otherwise could not afford the treatment.

When the new portal went live Jan. 1, each provider had to register for the new system all at once — a process that required more support from probation office employees than the state had anticipated — while a breakdown in the new system halted payments to some providers for months. Though the system worked flawlessly for some providers, others submitted payment requests that went unfulfilled for nearly four months, leading to a backlog of approximately 1,500 unpaid bills at its peak.

It's not clear exactly how much money the state owed providers when the backlog peaked, but from April 21-27 the office processed 1,215 vouchers that amounted to nearly $2 million in payments, many of which were backlogged from weeks or months prior. The payments the office processed over that period — which totaled $1.94 million — were paid to 260 separate health care and house providers, for an average of about $7,400 per provider.

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