LINCOLN — An Omaha father said he was “dumbfounded” when his request for transparency about a DHHS tool used in determining funding for families with disabilities led to a nearly $1 million estimate to provide records, with expected completion by September 2076.
DHHS now faces a lawsuit over the estimate.
Curt Safranek on Sept. 23 requested copies of communications between Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services employees and the firm Alvarez & Marsal. DHHS in mid-August tapped the firm to independently review Nebraska’s use of its “interRAI” tool in a no-bid contract. The agency reversed and began a competitive bidding process in late August.
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Since July 2025, the tool has helped calculate funding for Nebraska families receiving Home and Community-Based Waivers through Medicaid. Twenty-five other states also use the tool.
DHHS estimated the cost of compiling the records requested at $976,263.77 for three employees (at 26,017.5 hours of total work). The expected completion: Sept. 29, 2076. The first eight hours of work on any public records request are free under state law.
In total, DHHS’s estimate breaks down to 650.4 work weeks, if each employee worked 40 hours each week. It would be 12.5 years if the employees worked 24/7 without breaks.
By 2076, Safranek would be 105 years old.
“I actually thought I was reading it wrong,” Safranek said Monday, adding he was “dumbfounded” and parsed out the cost projections to check. “It just didn’t seem real.”
“I mean, ‘What the blank’ was kind of the internal what I said to myself, after I realized, yes, this is actually close to $1 million,” he continued. “It’s just unbelievable.”
DHHS did not respond Monday to a request for comment on Safranek’s lawsuit or an update on the bidding process for the third-party review.
Specifics of the records request
On Sept. 29, Safranek revised his request for records between Jan. 1, 2026, and the date of the revision. Each time, he included 11 search terms seeking to also narrow the records.
The response to the new request estimated it would take about half the first cost and time: $474,383.02 and 12,647.2 working hours.
The lawsuit states, “little about DHHS’s cost estimate makes sense.”
For example, DHHS says in the initial estimate that an attorney, at $44.54 per hour, for 14,475 hours, would search for, gather, review and, if necessary, redact any responsive records. A paralegal, at a $28.15 rate for 9,650.3 hours, would not search for but would finish similar work.
An “administrative programs officer,” at a pay rate of $31.84 for 1,892.2 hours, would then migrate any responsive records for Safranek’s review.
“DHHS can (and does) run search terms through an automated system that generates responsive documents,” the lawsuit states. “Thus, it is unclear why Curt’s request will take decades to fulfill and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.”
The lawsuit cites a section of Nebraska’s public records laws to expedite the case “as soon as reasonably possible” and take precedence over all other cases on the court’s trial docket. If Safranek wins, his legal team is also asking that DHHS cover attorney fees and legal costs.
‘What do they have to hide?’
Safranek, a founder of Disability Alliance of Nebraska, is requesting that a Lancaster County District Court judge force DHHS to issue a new public records estimate “reflecting the actual added cost of making the copies available.”
Safranek’s son, Will, has an intellectual disability and autism. The family relies on the Medicaid waiver for Will’s daily care, but last year, the interRAI downgraded Will’s funding. But by the time the family got its ruling about Sept. 30, 2025, Safranek said, Will had just been having some behavioral issues, and DHHS’s crisis team had been involved in Will’s case.
“It flew in the face of a reality we didn’t understand, that his funding would go down, them saying, ‘Well, he doesn’t need as much support,’” Safranek said.
Since then, Safranek has sought to get more clarity. He said he found 49 errors that he typed up and included in an appeal. He said it’s been an “uphill battle the whole way.”
Some of his records requests have gone to the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, led by Attorney General Mike Hilgers. In one case, for the proposed contract between Alvarez & Marsal and DHHS, the agency denied the request because the contract ultimately didn’t move forward. The AG’s Office said DHHS’s denial was “appropriate.”
“I’m obviously fighting for my son, but I’m also fighting for all those others who don’t have a voice or can’t necessarily get in the weeds on these kinds of details to shine a light on what’s going on,” Safranek said. “What do they have to hide? This should not be this hard.”
In the 2027 legislative session, which begins Jan. 6, Safranek said, he will ask for changes in public records laws for all state agencies. For DHHS specifically, he said, that’s so the agency can’t stand behind denials with impunity, at least regarding public records.
DHHS pursuing ‘objective recommendations’
In its Aug. 18 news release announcing the no-bid contract with Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector, DHHS said the goal was for “objective recommendations” to “optimize” the state’s allocation of resources for people receiving Home and Community-Based Waivers.
“The main objectives of the interRAI implementation evaluation are to assess the effectiveness of the implementation process, evaluate the impact on service delivery and outcomes, identify areas for improvement, and ensure the system is meeting program, operational and policy objectives,” DHHS said in the release.
DHHS has said the interRAI process has “significantly expanded” access to the Medicaid waivers and that approximately 80% of funding for families has remained steady or increased.
“As we continuously have an increase in the number of Nebraskans receiving waiver services, an independent and in-depth evaluation will allow Nebraska to optimize service delivery and allocation of resources to ensure the needs of all are being met while the program remains sustainable,” Tony Green, director of DHHS’s Division of Disability and Aging, said Aug. 18.
The A&M no-bid partnership faced immediate pushback in part because a former DHHS employee, Kristen Smith, is now a manager with the firm.
By the end of August, DHHS reversed its decision to award the $420,000 contract to A&M outright and said it would enter a competitive bidding process.
‘What’s right for our community’
Safranek said he is concerned about retaliation from the state for speaking out, something he’s heard from others who have been more vocal. He hopes that won’t be the case, “but at the same time, what do we do? Do we just remain quiet? Do we let them do whatever they want?”
He said Nebraskans can continue to push for transparency, demand accountability and vote in the interests of their loved ones. He said he’s gone to Gov. Jim Pillen directly and met with Hilgers’ chief of staff, too.
“We have continued to try to engage with them, and they just won’t do it,” Safranek said. “They’re not listening, and unfortunately, sometimes we have to take these avenues and do what’s right for our community.”
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
