Nevada taken off list of high-risk states for Y2K problems

A Senate panel removed Nevada from the list after receiving new data from the federal Health Care Financing Administration.

"States listed in the original press release were taken from the OMB (White House Office of Management and Budget) 10th quarterly report, based on Aug. 13 data. New data was available from HCFA (Health Care Financing Administration)," said a footnote in a revised announcement released Friday by state officials.

The revision came after Nevada officials angrily disputed a report earlier this week by the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem.

Citing data compiled by the federal health administration during visits to Nevada in April and August, the report on Wednesday suggested the state might not be prepared to process Medicaid, child health insurance or eligibility claims beginning Jan. 1.

Some computer programs, especially older ones, are expected to fail when the date changes to 2000. Because they were written to recognize only the last two digits of a year, such programs could read the digits "00" as 1900 instead of 2000.

"Nevada is at low risk in all our applications except welfare eligibility," said Marlene Lockard, information officer of Nevada's Department of Information Technology.

The states described "at considerable risk" in the revised report include Alabama, Alaska, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota and Vermont.

None of those states appeared in Wednesday's announcement.

"It appears to me they just corrected their Web site," Lockard said.

Lockard said many states complained about the report earlier in the week, and a conference call between officials from states and the federal government is scheduled Monday to clear up the confusion.

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