TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – State officials say a contractor underrepresented the scope of the state’s backlog of applications for Medicaid eligibility.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the contractor for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment miscounted by about 12,000 people.

KDHE Secretary Susan Mosier told federal officials in early June that Accenture relied upon a flawed method of reporting the Medicaid processing. The correction pushed the waiting list from 3,500 people on May 8 to 15,400 on May 22.

Mosier says temporary workers hired by the state to delve into the processing backlog would be kept after they were scheduled to be released at the end of June.

Processing problems began emerging in 2015 when the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback introduced a new computer system for determining Medicaid eligibility.