Michigan 211 missed every answer-time target; no manager was assigned

Michigan's Office of the Auditor General -- the state's constitutional post-auditor, whose findings audited agencies must answer with a compliance plan -- concluded in a June 10, 2026 performance audit⧉ that the Department of Health and Human Services' oversight of Michigan 211 was not sufficient, the report's bluntest verdict.▸ Michigan 211 is the state's free, 24-hour front door to food, housing, and health-services help, handling about 576,000 contacts a year under a state contract. The contractor's own performance reports told MDHHS the line was missing its targets -- average answer times of 3 to 6 minutes against a 90-second target in all 7 audited quarters, and the 90% database-accuracy requirement met in just 1 of 7 -- and the department could not show it reviewed those reports, followed up, or used the penalties its own contract provided. It had also never designated a manager to oversee the contract.

The standard here is not the auditor's invention -- it is MDHHS's own contract⧉.▸ The contract requires the 211 operator to confirm 90% of database records accurate every 12 months, to answer calls in an average of 1 minute 30 seconds, and to carry independent third-party assurance over its IT systems. Auditors found the accuracy bar was reported met in 1 (14%) of 7 quarters, and MDHHS "had not imposed any penalties for these unmet requirements, as allowed by the contract."

The speed-to-answer target was missed in every quarter of the 21-month audit period⧉ -- quarterly averages ran 3 to 6 minutes, two to four times the target -- and MDHHS lacked documentation that it reviewed the reports or followed up.▸ The auditors ran their own spot check of the database as of July 2024, reviewing 170 of 608 selected resource records across 15 zip codes, and found several inaccuracies in agency and website information. The mechanism of harm is plain: a resident dialing for a housing or food referral waits minutes instead of seconds, may be read an outdated listing -- and because no one at the department was checking, the misses carried no consequence.

Finding 1's list runs past the phone metrics.▸ MDHHS never obtained the independent third-party assurance reports⧉ the contract required for Michigan 211 or any of its four IT subservice organizations, and never verified FedRAMP certification -- the federal cloud-security standard the contract named. Those reports were the department's assurance that the line stays up, that callers' information stays confidential, and that the resource information given out across more than 500,000 contacts a year is sound. MDHHS's explanation to auditors: the requirement had been "mistakenly included" in the executed contract. The department also submitted Michigan 211's annual report to the Legislature without verifying it -- the fiscal year 2023 edition was missing a required referral metric -- and built no formal channel for user complaints to reach the department at all. MDHHS agreed with the finding, while noting it concerns procedures and practices rather than the effectiveness of the services 211 delivers.

MDHHS runs 72 distinct hotlines⧉; the audit selected five of the main mandated lines and examined the department's oversight of them.▸ For the MiCAL/988 crisis line, the problem-gambling helpline, and the domestic violence and sexual assault hotline, the verdict was gentler -- "sufficient, with exceptions" -- but the exceptions repeat the pattern. The credential MDHHS relied on for the gambling helpline grantee's data security, a CARF accreditation, expired in August 2022 and was never renewed; the department told auditors it didn't know. Neither MDHHS nor the grantee obtained the annual third-party audit of the helpline's information systems that their agreement called for.

MDHHS disagrees with that finding⧉ -- the only one of the three it contests -- arguing the grantee's role is programmatic; the auditors reply that the department "does not challenge the existence of the weaknesses" and let the finding stand as written.▸ And across all four hotlines, 15 of the 20 MDHHS employees responsible for monitoring the agreements or approving their payments had no current conflict-of-interest disclosure on file -- forms missing outright, or last filed 5 to 21 years before the contracts they were watching took effect.

Under Michigan law, MDHHS owed the State Budget Office's Office of Internal Audit Services a compliance plan within 60 days⧉ of the report's June 10, 2026 issuance -- early August 2026.▸ The department's written commitments are specific: monitor 211's quarterly reports against the 90% accuracy bar and require a corrective-action plan when progress falls significantly short, annually request and review SOC reports and verify FedRAMP certification for 211's platforms, document its review of the contractor's gap analyses, checklist the legislative report before submission, and amend the 211 contract to require annual complaint reporting by call center and type. On the conflict-of-interest finding, MDHHS reports the sampled employees' files now each contain a disclosure form, with no conflicts identified. The open question is the one the audit itself frames: whether commitments made on paper get checked -- which is precisely the failure mode the report documents.