AUGUSTA – A state official is promising to have Maine Health and Human Services computers, which have been holding up payments and causing other problems for state contractors, fixed by the end of the year.

Deputy Commissioner John Michael Hall said he hopes to have a new claims management system running normally as early as the end of October.

Problems with computers in one of the state’s largest departments have held up payments to thousands of medical providers across Maine.

State contractors providing services for poor children, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, former inmates and others have been complaining that payments are slow and too many bills are disputed by the new computer system.

Hall, meeting with Kennebec Journal editors in Augusta, said the number of claims the computer is rejecting has been sharply reduced as workers debug the system.

The department pays out more than $2 billion a year in fees to medical and other service providers. About 80 percent of the total is going out on time, Hall said, and he hopes to have the total up to at least 90 percent by the end of the year. A small number of claims will continue to be disputed, he said.

Hall said the problems arose in part because the new computer system is being created by a new company breaking into a market that has been, up until now, dominated by two firms.

Federal officials, who are paying for much of the development of the new system, are encouraged by the progress, despite problems at the beginning, he said.

DHHS Commissioner John “Jack” Nicholas told the Kennebec Journal his department has implemented improvements in administration of federal Medicaid drug rebates for which it was criticized in the past.