White House blames "outage" for locking out Medicaid, Head Start, health centers from funding site

The White House blamed an "outage" for locking out a wide range of organizations and agencies on Tuesday from the online systems responsible for drawing down federal health dollars. 

Multiple state Medicaid programs reported late Tuesday they have been able to resume accessing their payment systems after the nationwide lockout. 

The interruption had sparked outcry from state governments, nonprofits and lawmakers in the wake of the Trump administration's move to freeze spending across the federal government. After legal challenges were filed against the funding freeze, a federal judge issued a stay temporarily halting the move until she can hear arguments in the case.

State Medicaid agencies, federally funded Head Start early education programs and community health centers had been among those cut off from access to the Payment Management Services web portal, or PMS, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, which handles billions of dollars of payments every year. 



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