ALC-Hospital, Medicaid, & Developmental Disabilities Study Subcommittee
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Unknown speaker
2:30
you can be Muslim and still say hey your mom and dad are important you should have a relationship with your mom and dad it's so terrifying and I'm believing it
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
3:00
all right we see a quorum we'll get this meeting started colleagues we've got a lot on our agenda today i'm going to point out a couple of things you'll see here um a report starts it says arkansas
general assembly on the top if you guys will remember when legislation was passed for this subcommittee we had to give a report due a year from today um at the end of the 95th general assembly but today we need to get our six-month report due so if you guys will take your time during this committee meeting we'll take a vote on this towards the end but i want to bring your attention to it um a subcommittee of the legislative council you'll see on the top if you'll read that and we'll take a vote at the end of the committee meeting for that approval. I also asked Deputy Director Wendy Cartwright to give us a budget for DHS
so as we're going through each of these programs, we'll see what their budget is each year. So you'll also see that in your packet today. So you can look and see county operations. I see they have $267 million budget, so we can look and see what that budget is like if you look through that from Wendy Cartwright. So we have the budget from Wendy Cartwright. we have the report that's due for this committee meeting and just wanted you guys to have those things to look at for today so we will take votes on those later we're going to begin today with DHS giving us an update on the division of county operations so DHS will come forward and we'll
get started with questions and we'll get their report first and then we'll have questions as they get done thank you all for driving down here first thing on Monday morning I really do I know it's an early start to ALC week, and I appreciate all of you coming down to Center English. Do you have anything to say before we get started? Okay. And I appreciate everybody's participation here today. You guys are—tell us who you are, and then just get started. Thank you.
Speaker 22
5:10
Good morning. Janet Mann, secretary, DHS. Good morning. I'm
Speaker 24
5:17
Mary Franklin, Director of the Division of County Operations for DHS. All right. Thank
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
5:22
you both for being here. If you'd give us support for county operations,
Speaker 26
5:26
we'd appreciate it. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present county operations. It's where we do the... Can you move that just a little closer? Thank you. Usually you have no problems hearing me. Thank you. County Operations is the division that does all of our applications for eligibility
for all of our programs within
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
5:45
DHS. And with that, I'm going to let Mary Franklin discuss the details. Good morning.
Speaker 24
5:53
So in the Division of County Operations, we process and verify eligibility for our most vulnerable citizens and for families or individuals who are facing difficult times and need help to get back on their feet. We do this by determining health care eligibility, and by health care we mean Medicaid and CHIP, Children's Health Insurance Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP,
the Transitional Employment Assistance Program, the Work Pays Program, which are both part of the TANF block grant, and Summer EBT. We also administer two block grants in the Division of County Operations, and those are the Community Service Block Grant and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF Block Grant. Through the work we do, we have federal oversight. The SNAP and Summer EBT programs are administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Service.
And the health care programs that we administer, as well as the TANF Block Grant and the CSBG Block Grant, are all administered by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CMS administers Medicaid and CHIP. And the Administration for Children and Families administers the TANF and CSBG Block Grants. Our mission in the Division of County Operations is to provide appropriate access to the programs we administer at DHS.
Our goals in the Division of County Operations include providing accurate services, to provide timely services, and to provide effective case management services that help our TM workplace clients achieve self-sufficiency and meet federal participation rates. And
Speaker 36
7:41
we also want to provide competent, efficient, and courteous services to all of our
Speaker 24
7:48
clients. A little bit more information about each of these programs. Health care, including Medicaid and CHIP, it provides medically necessary health care services to those who are eligible from birth through end of life through many different categories of assistance.
To give you an idea of the amount of people we serve and the volume of work in this program, I've provided you a table. And this is a point-in-time enrollment number. As of September 2nd, we were serving 864,019 individuals in Medicaid and CHIP. Between October 2024 and August of 2025, we had processed 224,465 applications for services for health care.
And that average is 20,406 per month during that time period. We completed, we processed applications in that same time period. We completed 337,705 applications, which is an average of 30,700 per month. The average number of days for us to complete a health care application during that time is 19. We approved 53.6% of those applications, and we denied 46.4%.
We completed over 600,000 renewals during that same time period, an average of 54,903 per month. And changes reported by clients or information that became available to us
Speaker 36
9:23
between July 24 and July 25 was 493,623 for the health care program. For SNAP, this
Speaker 24
9:32
program provides food assistance to eligible households to cover a portion of those households' food budget.
Benefits are delivered through an electronic benefit transfer card to purchase eligible foods at participating F&S authorized retailers. Our SNAP enrollment, as of September 1st, 2025, we had 222,513 individuals, which were part of 118,441 households in the SNAP program. We received 156,347 applications between October of 24 and
Speaker 36
10:12
August of 25, and that is an average of 14,214 applications per month.
month. During that same time period, we completed 157,440 applications, which is an average of 14,312 per month. Our average number of days to complete those applications
Speaker 24
10:36
was 17. We approved 47.5 percent of those applications and denied 52.5 percent of those applications. During that same time period we completed 129,474 renewals
Speaker 36
10:50
for SNAP which is an average of 10,790 per month
and we completed 242,650 changes for the SNAP program during between July of 24 and June of 25.
Speaker 24
11:04
A little bit more information about the TANF block grant that we administer. The block grant has four broad purposes, and those purposes are to provide assistance to needy families so that children can be cared for in their homes or in the homes of relatives, to end the dependency of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage.
Another goal is to prevent out-of-wedlock births, and also to encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. And the TANF block grant can also be used to provide services that had previously been approved in the Arkansas Title IVA
Speaker 41
11:52
that were authorized under prior law prior to TANF. The
Speaker 24
11:57
T program is funded by TANF, Transitional Employment Assistance, and this program is time limited.
arkansas it is 12 months and it is it this program is to help children uh families with dependent children become more responsible for their own support and less dependent on public assistance the program provides a small amount of cash assistance and also ongoing monthly support services related to employment including job readiness activities transportation assistance child care assistance if needed and other supportive services so that these parents
Speaker 24
12:42
and educational activities. Our enrollment in the team program as of
Speaker 36
12:47
September 1st, 2025 was 1,731 individuals in 717 households. We received between October of 24 and August of 25 10,456 applications for TEA which is an average of 951 per month. We completed during that same
time period 10,526 applications which is an average of 957 per month. Our average number of days to complete a TEA application is nine and we approved five percent
Speaker 24
13:21
of those applications and denied 95 percent our renewals completed for tea between october of
Speaker 36
13:26
24 and august of 25 was 127 which is an average of 12 per month work pays is another can we hold off just a minute you've
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
13:39
dumped a lot of information i'm sure there's some questions i know i have some questions so i'm gonna let's just stop right there all right
that's okay no you're fine you're great i i once again i really you so much appreciate um this forum for us to look at and for us to look at things in detail and just have a couple of questions so i'm going to start out with a couple and then we'll add some more thank you so much i just want us to take time to take a breath and get into this just a little bit so i know we're hearing um lots right now of concerns of people that um changes in the big beautiful bill will take some people off of medicaid and those that are not u.s citizens so
but it's under my understanding is in the past can you clarify for us that people that are not u.s citizens are not eligible for medicaid here in arkansas is
that correct and so what process do we use to make sure that the people that
Speaker 24
14:26
are receiving medicaid are u.s citizens at this point so citizenship or eligible immigration status has always been a focus of health
Speaker 36
14:33
care medicaid and chip so it isn't so you you can be an undocumented person or here in the country illegally and
receive Medicaid. There are two different ways to receive Medicaid right now. One is called emergency Medicaid services, and that is if someone has an emergent situation, I would say they're here in the country, there's a car accident, they go to the ER, and they need services in the ER. That is what that program is for. It is not ongoing coverage. It's limited to a fixed period of a number of days to treat the emergency and things that are chronic type illnesses like cancer
or heart disease those are not qualifying conditions for emergency medicaid it has to be an acute onset thing like delivery of a baby or car accident you know some kind of injury type related emergency that is one way that people who are undocumented can receive medicaid The
Speaker 24
15:39
other way is through the Children's Health Insurance Program, the CHIP program, there is a category for, we call it the unborn pregnant women category, and that is for women who meet the financial requirements but don't meet the citizenship requirements for regular Medicaid coverage for the pregnancy, but they are covered during the time
Speaker 36
16:01
that they are pregnant while they're here in the U.S.
And for the delivery of the child. Yes. And for the delivery of the child. Other than that, people who are not citizens meet the statutory definition of immigration statuses that are allowed for coverage. For example, an example here in Arkansas would be our Marshallese community. They're not U.S. citizens, but they are allowed to participate in Medicaid if they are financially eligible, even though they are not citizens.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
16:37
I'm sure there'll be other questions, so I'll step aside and come back in
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
16:46
for some more. We'll start with Representative Carolyn Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just curious, that is on the T, the T program. That is a
large percentage of denied applications. Could you tell me a little bit about what's happening here,
why there's such a small percentage of approval? Why are people applying who aren't eligible,
Speaker 24
17:16
apparently? There could be several reasons. The income limit for T is $513 a month, regardless of household size. The benefit amount, for example, if we, and one thing that, you know, i didn't explain earlier is some of the recipients of tea are not adults who who
Speaker 36
17:36
are needing the service to help them find work or become more self-sufficient they are relatives of children
they may be grandparents aunts uncles that are receiving tea on behalf of a relative child and so if there's a one person household and that would be one of those grandparent or aunt uncle payee cases the benefit amounts $81 a month for one person
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
18:00
just so I understand so they would be the the primary caregiver for this child yes and it's $81 a month
Speaker 24
18:10
for a single person if it's a household of two it's $162 if it's a household of three it's $204 so the income limit is fairly low
$513 a month the cash benefit is also low there are requirements if if you are an adult receiving teen cash assistance there are work and education training activities that are required to be participated in you know up to 35 to 40 hours a week there's a plan that's worked out with eligible recipients but with a case manager in that recipient where that case manager goes through What are the barriers that are preventing you from being able to be more self-sufficient?
What can we do to help you get there and develop a plan to help them get there, which includes participating
Speaker 36
19:00
in those monthly activities that are part of the plan that are designed to help the person
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
19:06
to not need T anymore? Let me interrupt just a second. I would assume, though, if a grandmother is raising a grandchild, this is not going to be the only benefit that they will be eligible for. I mean, they would be eligible for SNAP and other things,
Speaker 24
19:21
right? It would depend. If they meet the financial requirements for SNAP, then they can certainly receive SNAP.
Speaker 36
19:27
That adult could receive Medicaid for themselves if they meet the, you know, eligibility requirements for
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
19:33
Medicaid. So this isn't going to be the sole benefit, but it just seemed like there was a large percentage of denied applicants compared to most of the
Speaker 24
19:44
other benefits. There are, but it's a different program than the rest of our programs, and the requirements are explained. Child support enforcement is another requirement, and an eligibility interview is a requirement. And through that process, and we deny applications for, sometimes we get them and there's no eligible child in the home.
There's no dependent child. They're over income, or they don't want
Speaker 36
20:07
to participate in the activities, so they withdraw the application. or we request information that's needed to determine eligibility and maybe it's not returned. There is a whole list of reasons why an application could be
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
20:18
denied. Well, I'm not being critical. I was just curious. Just thank you for explaining all that. You're welcome. Representative
Representative David Ray
Unverified
20:32
Ray. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I've heard from several.
First of all, I appreciate the overview of these programs. It's very helpful. I have heard from several people or entities that maybe applied for TANF funding and didn't receive it. And to help me better understand how those funds are typically distributed, I'd like to see if you guys could provide me with maybe a five-year look back on what entities receive TANF funding and how that's changed year to year over the last five years. Is that something you could do?
Speaker 24
21:09
We can definitely provide a look back to for those funds to 2023 when when the TANF program transitioned back to DHS prior to that it was administered through Department of Commerce the Division of Workforce Services
Speaker 40
21:19
but could you work with them to get the remaining years yes sir we'll work with them to see if we
Speaker 26
21:28
can get the complete five years okay that would be helpful and then
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
21:34
if you guys just get that to Caitlin she'll get it out to the
Representative David Ray
Unverified
21:40
whole committee so thank you yes um and then just one more
question secretary man also on the tana funds
as i understand it the cac's are not receiving any tana funds um this for this year and they have in the past can you help me understand the decision there to discontinue funding the cac's through tana
Speaker 71
22:02
yes sir i do need to correct one thing the cac's have received
Speaker 26
22:07
funding this year through december 31st okay so next year yes sir it was reduced we reduced all of the sub-grant awards by the same percentage to all seven awardees we informed them in may that that would
be happening from july through december and due to reserves having been spent down over previous years and not knowing what future funding looked like we encouraged them to apply for another grant opportunity at commerce i don't know the outcome of of that grant opportunity but um as part of that five-year look
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
22:42
back more than happy to get you the cac information also okay so
Representative David Ray
Unverified
22:48
you're what you're saying is the the amount of funding for all the entities that received tanf was just
Speaker 26
22:56
reduced proportionally yes sir we had seven sub grantees that received six-month grant while we were doing the analysis of what would be available for future subgrants and to do six months worth of granting again in July we reduced them all by the same percentage so we then sent them information and had phone calls with them to let them know in May that that was coming for July through December we also told them we didn't know what January looked like for any subgrants and we have not
informed um anyone of what will be happening in january we're
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
23:36
in because we're still trying to see what's going to happen
Representative David Ray
Unverified
23:41
with the shutdown okay all right i appreciate y'all being willing to pull together that information and look
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
23:52
forward to reviewing that yes sir thank you representative annett thank you madam chair good morning um if snap benefits are delayed or interrupted during the government shut down is the department prepared to redirect recipients to other food
assistant options so yes ma'am
Speaker 24
24:09
the october snap benefits we have been notified and the funding for october benefits is available so so the shutdown will not affect october and yes should the benefits become unavailable we would refer individuals to local local places we're aware of that are food pantries or food banks where they might receive assistance as well as other programs
Speaker 83
24:38
that in their WIC although it's not administered by Department of Human Services we would make appropriate referrals for WIC or the other program food
Speaker 84
24:47
programs that are administered in other departments. Follow-up. Will that be on
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
24:53
your website, or is that information that you give them if they come to the office? I think it
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
25:01
would be a combination of both and also probably some usage of social media, trying to make sure everyone would know.
Most of that information probably would come through our local
Speaker 27
25:14
offices in the 75 counties, though. Thank you. Thank
Speaker 89
25:31
you. Representative Rye? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
25:36
page four, it mentions October 1, 2027, and it mentions the benefits, I guess the state share of the SNAP program going from 50 to 75%.
can you can you guys give us a little insight on how much money that we're talking in the future of how much we're going
Speaker 24
26:04
to have to budget for that yes representative um the change that you're referring to that that happens october 1 2027 came out of the federal one big beautiful act um and it increases the state share of snap administrative expenses to administer the program from 50% state, 50% federal, to 75% state, and 25% federal, and
our estimate on the amount of that is about $24 million in increased state costs to administer the SNAP program starting in October 1,
Speaker 93
26:39
2017. Yes, ma'am. I may have missed something, but do you have
Speaker 36
26:43
a dollar figure? $24 million additional. $24
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
26:46
million. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You're welcome.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
26:51
Senator Hammer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. Just a couple questions. On the TANF funding, that's going to take us to the levels of which we have equal amount of funding coming in
so that any programs that were maybe overfunded before are now going to be in line. Is that a fair assessment? I know it seemed like there was a period of correction where we have to get things in line. with what we
Speaker 26
27:21
actually have is that fair yes sir i do believe so we are now living within the four corners of our annual grant there
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
27:28
were several years of reserves where several different things could be funded and the reserves are
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
27:34
now being deplenished okay and so the balance of talent
of tana funds is what now or have we depleted the balance trying to get everything in a righted position or do you have that balance or is it on this
Speaker 26
27:48
paperwork somewhere? I don't have the exact balance as of today. I think we
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
27:52
were doing the analysis with the government shutdown. TANF has not been funded in in October so I will
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
27:59
get you a balance number. Okay and then on the balance discussion the government shutdown prolongs another two or three weeks. I know you said you
I thought I heard you say a minute ago you have enough funding to get through October. was that
Speaker 26
28:15
correct or did i misunderstand for i believe ms franklin
Speaker 100
28:18
indicated for snap benefits we have been funded
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
28:21
through october okay and if we're not funded through october do we have any reserves that can be utilized to carry
Speaker 26
28:29
that forward or did i miss that no sir the um miss i'm gonna
Speaker 24
28:35
ask ms franklin to explain how the benefits get loaded so the the snap benefits The federal government made the October benefits available, and this is typical the month before for states to use to issue benefits for the next month.
So the October benefits were made available, and everyone who's eligible for October benefits will receive those benefits. November is questionable depending on how long the shutdown goes. Right. So the panic button is
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
29:01
going to be in the last week of October if they don't get things open back up. Was that a fair statement? Yes, sir. Okay. And then when it comes to individuals that receive the various benefits that you have on this handout,
you know, whether it's WorkPays, EBD, EBT, SNAP, TANF, do you have the systems in place that you can cross-reference to determine if, and I'm just grabbing a name out of the air, Joe Smith. Joe Smith is getting benefits. Are you able to identify all the various benefits that Joe Smith is getting by cross-referencing all
Speaker 24
29:45
the programs that are available to him? Senator Hammer, we have an integrated eligibility system. So for someone receiving health care services, SNAP, summer EBT, T or work pays, those are all integrated into our system.
And, yes, we would be able to identify if a single person was receiving all of those benefits or only one program. Okay.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
30:08
I'll have an offline discussion. Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
Speaker 114
30:12
Representative Beck. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a – the first question might
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
30:17
be a little bit too wide open, but just briefly, if you could explain it, or maybe you can put a report together. You know, looking at the TANF and
the goals that you guys are shooting for in those programs,
is there any way you can give us some examples of how some of the things that you
mentioned, like promoting job preparedness, work, and marriage to prevent out-of-wedlock births, several others,
are any, just a little bit of a nuts and bolts as to how you are doing that with those block grants? Like maybe who's, what group you're working with, I guess,
Speaker 24
31:02
to provide those services? So our T and work pace eligibility categories, those are funded by TANF,
and those programs are both designed to help promote self-sufficiency for those families. So we work with families in both of those programs to help them become more self-sufficient and less dependent on public assistance overall. And then outside of those two programs that we operate in DHS, there's the Career Pathways Program, which is also at least partially funded with the TANF block grant that has very similar goals.
There's no cash assistance involved in that, but it works with individuals to do education and training activities and help them become where they do not need assistance. Follow-up. Some child care is also funded by the TANF block grant, which helps families be able to do training and or working. And then there can be other programs that have been funded with the reserves that were
Speaker 40
32:12
present to help focus on youth and prevention and training programs.
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
32:18
So the question I would have then, it sounds great, is would the, you
mentioned the T stuff, so as far as job preparedness, I can see where, you know, possibly someone needing to attend a class or something like that would need maybe some child care associated so they could, is that, how do you administer that? I mean, is it just, okay, here's some money for child care,
and then they go and utilize those, or is it requiring that they be involved with some type of a program that's approved maybe through you guys or some other force? I guess that's kind of what I'm kneeling at a little bit there. Is it like if you want child care for educational purposes, for work preparedness, would you then look at that program they were in and say, yeah, we'll certainly provide you child care to that. Or am I getting too much into the nuts and bolts of things?
Speaker 24
33:23
So I think I can answer your question. And I want to also make one thing clear. The only cash that's provided to T and work pays participants is that small amount of monthly cash I mentioned. If the household is one, it's $81. If it's two, it's $162. So even if a household was receiving child care assistance, it wouldn't be through cash being provided directly to that individual. That would be done through child care facilities that, you know, accept T payment or, you know, to provide the service.
And so, yes, if we have a client in T or WorkPays that needs child care, then that case manager that's working with them helps to make those arrangements for child care and then has an ongoing relationship with that client where they're monitoring how is our client doing, are they following their plan, are they attending class, are they doing their work experience or whatever is part of that plan for the child care to be continued. so there is some
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
34:34
care process thank you one sort of a
different question uh you were talking about with the t program that it's time limited in terms of the medicaid uh part
Speaker 42
34:46
of it the t program itself um is limited to 12 months here in
Speaker 24
34:52
Arkansas it it could be longer if someone is is deferred so if someone has had health issues or things that are causing them to not be required to participate in those monthly activities I mentioned they may receive possibly longer than 12 months if they have if they're deferred but
if they are not deferred if there's no reason why they they could not participate in those work activities then it's 12 months it's limited to 12 months nationally the TANF program is limited to 60 months and states have the flexibility to set their own time limit between 12 months and 60 months so as I
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
35:32
understood it when you were saying and I might have misunderstood you were saying that as far as the medical aspects of it that was for a limited time right and now was that
So let me, was that limited time for the length of treatment or was it a limited time? Because you kind of mentioned if someone happened to be in the United States or happened to be here, the emergency aspect of care was for a limited time. So is that the limited time that they would be here or is it
Speaker 125
36:06
a limited time for the amount of the treatment? Okay. Let me separate the T
Speaker 24
36:11
program from that conversation we had about the time-limited health care. And that time-limited health care was specific to individuals who are not meeting citizenship requirements,
who have an emergency, that emergency Medicaid category. But otherwise, someone who meets the citizenship requirements and meets the financial requirements for Medicaid, they can continue receiving Medicaid as long as they continue to meet those requirements. Except for that situation where it's emergency Medicaid for someone who is not a citizen or undocumented, and then it is limited to the specific time that's needed to care for them for the emergency only.
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
36:51
And I apologize. I was actually referring to the undocumented individuals. So that time, could someone be here for two years? and then all of a sudden they need this, is the time limit on the time that they're in the United States undocumented or is it the time limited for the amount of treatment that they could have? It's the amount of treatment.
Right. So someone could literally be here for years and
then initially trip this emergency Medicaid and they would receive benefits. I
Speaker 24
37:35
would not anticipate anyone receiving emergency Medicaid for two consecutive years. I mean, this is a finite number of days to care for the emergency. It's not intended for ongoing coverage of someone who does not meet
Speaker 40
37:49
citizenship requirements. But if someone were here illegally
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
37:53
for two years and they didn't have anything to do with the program,
now they could go into the program and receive that for a limited amount of time that you're talking about. The services is
Speaker 130
38:06
that correct emergency Medicaid? Yes, not these other programs that I'm yes. Thank you
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
38:17
Thank you representative Richardson Thank you madam chair. Thank you guys for being here. I actually wanted to piggyback off of what representative begs you said so the Individuals that are here illegally will only receive those emergency benefits in my mind due to a life-threatening
injury, like if they were in a car wreck and they were about to die or a lady was about to, those are the only reasons they would receive them. I just want to make sure I understand that correctly. Yes, for emergency medication. Okay, thank you. My other question is, as I'm looking through the SNAP piece, can you give me an idea of the 52% that's denied? What seems to be the reasons that these people are denied? And then the second piece of that is, is the 17 days that it takes to complete the applications, is that better or worse than it was a year ago
Speaker 24
39:05
so just like with the the team program there there are a number of reasons why
a household might be denied if they apply the program does require an eligibility interview so not completing that interview could be a reason the income limit for snap is 130 percent of the federal poverty level some households are denied because they are over the income limit you said a
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
39:26
hundred and what percent what was the
Speaker 24
39:28
percent 130 percent um they can be denied for being over the income limit they can be denied for not providing information that we need to verify eligibility they could be over the resource limit just different lists of reasons why someone could
Speaker 133
39:45
potentially be denied for snap do you guys track that the reasons yes okay i
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
39:54
if you wanted we could provide you uh i'd be interested in seeing i don't know
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
39:57
if the chair would be okay with that but sure if you'll send it to staff we'll get out to the whole committee that'd be great are you do you have
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
40:03
another follow-up question representative it was just the last one of the days is
Speaker 24
40:07
it better or worse um this is for the last 12 months and knowing where we have been where we have come from this is better this is better thank you guys thank you senator erwin
Speaker 64
40:19
urban service thank you madam chair hi good morning um
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:23
on the uh snap accuracy rate how is the accuracy rate
Speaker 24
40:32
determined uh i can explain that to you okay let me start by saying that our federal fiscal year 24 final accuracy rate was 9.56 percent yeah i saw that okay um snap accuracy rate is determined through a random sampling of active SNAP cases during the federal fiscal
year. So October 1 to September 30th of a year. And it is determined based on the payment accuracy rate, not necessarily the case accuracy rate. So payment accuracy, total dollars of SNAP benefits provided to the household for the month versus the dollars that were found to be in error through the quality control review sample.
Speaker 40
41:23
That's how the payment accuracy rate is determined. We determine that ourselves in the state and report that to FNS. They do a review
behind us and review a sample of the sample we reviewed and they actually calculate the final rate. So our rate that we report is an estimate waiting for the federal government to determine the actual final
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
41:49
rate based on the outcome of their
reviews. Okay. So the accuracy is defined as what? What is inaccurate? Is it based on eligibility? We provided benefits and they weren't actually eligible to receive them or you're talking your or the payments were paid
out to an entity that didn't qualify to receive them what what defines accuracy so it it
Speaker 24
42:17
is the overall accuracy of the case but and also it's important to know that we have we calculate benefits for each individual household so someone the household that qualifies for snap they don't all get the same amount of money. Okay. Okay. Um, it depends on their income, the allowable deductions, uh, which include, um, shelter if more than half of their shelter or more
than half of their monthly accountable income goes towards their rent utilities or home insurance. So accuracy is administrative payment level. And it could, and it, it, it could be that that review determines i'm just going to say an example if the household was we we had approved them for 350 a month and the review determined they should have
Speaker 40
43:07
only gotten 275 okay then that 75 difference is is is an error i got it also could be we approved someone that
Speaker 24
43:17
during the review was determined totally ineligible they should not have gotten a benefit but we made a mistake or the client didn't provide information that we were
Speaker 40
43:26
aware of and the client made a mistake and it made them totally ineligible so so that that is what the review is to see is the case correct was the benefit
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:38
amount issued to the client correct okay so it's it's if it was issued correctly number one and
then amount determined number two if that was correct based on eligibility and so it's an administrative issue so to speak okay and then um and I see the
reason I'm asking that is because now we are going to have to pay for a portion based on that rate so I see that you've come down to your current rate is 6.88 percent so we're moving in the right direction but we're still over that six percent threshold we are so have y'all done any kind of calculations, uh, based on this as to what now will also be. So you have an increase of the administrative cost of the program from 50% to 75%, which is 24 million. And you have an increase
based on this accuracy rate. Have y'all done any calculations to see what that would be based
Speaker 24
44:40
on the current 6.88 percent yes ma'am based so the the one big beautiful act did change that right now snap benefits are 100 federally funded but beginning federal fiscal year 28 that funding amount will require states to pay a portion and if your error rate is between six and seven point
nine nine percent that is five percent state contribution to the benefits and that is estimated that estimated cost would be twenty two point
Speaker 83
45:17
seven million dollars based on the amount of
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
45:24
SNAP benefits we have issued over the last 12 months okay so potentially if we don't get that error rate down we could be looking at $46.7 million additional state share plus the additional state share based
on our FMAP change, which is about $90 million. Correct? Or is it $180? No, $90. It's $90 per percentage point. But at that point,
how much is it going to be? I'm trying to find a total amount of state share that we are now going to have to provide to this pro to to medicaid based on the changes at the federal
Speaker 26
46:13
level yes ma'am the f map has did change this past week
yeah 14 days 13 days ago um and we um have been looking at that and usually half a percentage to a to a percentage we've discussed is somewhere in the 45 million dollar to 90 million dollar range of additional sgr we are also looking for looking forward in the future um ffis and federal government will go ahead and start issuing the estimates for the following year and right now we have two
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
46:49
different calculations going to where it could go down or it could level or go up so that's really sorry so I don't have an answer going in the future but the FMAP did change and it has this the second year in a row that it's
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:03
changed and gone down yeah so I'm just kind of recapping based on this information here and this is only from one program change SNAP and the FMAP I'm sure there may be others
Speaker 26
47:15
I'm not sure um two program changes so SNAP is the admin and the
potential of the error rate the error rate the admin is on 10-1 of 27 the error rate will be in effect on 10-1 of 28 28 so they are staggered a year and then the f map changes every october one and we probably should prepare a chart yeah that'd be cool that
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:36
would be great i think because i think it's important for us to see the increase on state gr that we're going to have to budget for and plan for in the upcoming sessions.
Yes, ma'am. And it's looking like it's going to be closer
to $200 million. Over several years. Between $160 to $200 million. Okay.
Last question. States on stolen benefits. States are prohibited from using federal funds to replace these stolen benefits. Do
we have an estimate on that? So I'm assuming then if there's stolen benefits, the state has to provide money for
Speaker 26
48:17
that? So there was part of the federal statute that expired on 12-31 of 24 that did allow federal funds to replace the benefits.
After that time period, we do not have a mechanism to replace those
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
48:31
funds. Snap fraud has grown excessively across the country. I think we have reported on that. i think we've been trying we hear things things get reported to us i think it's very hard for us to calculate exactly how much has been stolen
Speaker 23
48:47
i don't know if you have any estimates so i i can't give you an exact dollar of
Speaker 36
48:52
what has been stolen i do know and states are not required to replace the benefits with state funds okay okay um but um in june we started or getting multiple reports
Speaker 24
49:05
from clients that their benefits were gone and they didn't spend them. And looking at
Speaker 36
49:10
the transaction history, we saw a lot of benefits being spent in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And so, you know, the amount of benefits that were spent in those two states in the month of June and
Speaker 24
49:25
July, it was around $6 to $7 million. So a large part of that, I would think it would be correct to say a large part of that were stolen, although we could have had clients who moved to that area
Speaker 36
49:40
or were in that area for whatever reason and spent their benefits, but not to that degree, not with the number of reports we were
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
49:49
getting. Okay. So, I mean, basically it's their benefits were stolen from them, but also from us. Yes. But mainly from them, and we can't replace them. Okay. Thank you.
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
50:05
Thank you, Senator. Representative Crawford. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, ladies. Morning. I want to go back to government shutdown and WIC.
I heard through our news sources that President Trump used some of the tariff money to continue WIC. Is that a true statement, and is that happening in Arkansas? Thank you for the question. I did see
Speaker 26
50:30
the same news alert that WIC would be paid for by tariff revenue. That is administered by the Department of Health, so I really can't answer. I don't know the answer. You do not have?
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
50:43
No, ma'am. You have not heard anything other than what the news has reported? Yes, that is correct. Okay, and you've heard nothing about, I kind of wondered if he was going to
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
50:57
do that, if he would do the SNAP, so nothing has come your
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
51:02
way yet. No, ma'am, nothing has come our way in extra funding or additional funding sources. Okay, one other question. What can the Medicaid Trust Fund,
Speaker 26
51:12
what can that be spent on? So the Medicaid Trust Fund is a compilation of multiple accounts.
There are accounts used there for provider taxes, which are administered by acts that can only be spent for those expenses. The soda tax is the only unrestricted account that can be used for all of Medicaid. And when I say unrestricted, I'll give you an
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
51:38
example. Ambulances have a provider tax to have provider payments. They contribute, it's maintained in that fund, and when those payments are made, that is the money that's used for match.
So we have several of those accounts, and then the SOTA tax fund is the only unrestricted that can be used for any of the Medicaid expenses that are needed. Okay,
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
52:02
and it's strictly Medicaid. It would not go into SNAP or WIC or food, anything. Strictly Medicaid. Yes, strictly Medicaid. All right, thank you. Thank you. Senator Hammer.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
52:23
All right, quick question. Help me combine a conversation. Help me, and maybe this is a long representative of Beck's conversation while going. I'm just trying to get my mind around some things, so grant me some latitude. The discussion about the voucher program for child care that we had a week, two weeks ago, however long that was the sprinkled within some of these programs like the work pays or some of these other ones there there are components for child care that are mixed in with those am I correct on that yes sir but those that
are those that are mixed in on Exhibit B the different things you've got here the summary BDT and work pays those all have restrictions on them that that child care funding can only be paid for certain things uh am i correct on that i mean if they're doing certain things am i correct on
Speaker 56
53:18
that it would it would be for individuals participating with us
Speaker 24
53:22
in both t and work pays and based on what that household's needs were for child care in
Speaker 137
53:27
order for them to continue working or doing their education and training or work experience hours
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
53:33
okay and the source of funding for those for that component the child care within these various programs um has there have there been any funding the f map just came out i know that can in some ways it hurts us because we're advancing as a state so our reduction in f map funding goes down is that correct so the the child
Speaker 24
53:56
care paid for by t and work pays comes out of the tanf block grant and is not associated with the Medicaid FMAP.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
54:04
Okay, and did you say we've had cuts in TANF funding or not? I know
you all are trying to balance the outflow, but have there been any cuts in
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
54:15
the TANF funding? No, sir. There's been no cuts in the annual grant award. The
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
54:23
annual grant award has remained the same. Okay. And is there any correlation, any connection between the voucher program that's administered by the Department of Ed and the funding that comes through these programs for
parents that are receiving assistance for child care. I'm trying to connect what's going on in the voucher program versus what's going on in these programs that have the central theme of trying to help with child care
Speaker 56
54:51
costs. Senator Hammer, I can confirm that $7.5 million comes from the TANF
Speaker 24
54:57
block grant annually to the abc program which is administered by the department of ed but i do not know how that or if that abc program connects with the
Speaker 83
55:07
voucher program that was discussed last week
it's just beyond my expertise okay and
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
55:13
that's what probably have to have an offline conversation because the other thing i'm wondering is parents that receive any of the vouchers and i don't know that's what i'm asking i'm hoping maybe y'all can explain is if any of the parents that receive the voucher program funding for their child care and then the the funding through here can they apply for both or would they be able to receive both or they're prohibited from receiving both they have
Speaker 24
55:41
to take one or the other or do you know so I don't know I I don't know about the voucher program and what other services you could you could apply for or have in addition to that but in the t and work pays program for those clients we're going to cover the child care that's needed for them to participate with us and do the activities they're required to
Speaker 83
56:03
do right so i don't know why they would need more is what i'm saying
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
56:10
yeah but you can only do that based on the amount of money that
the government gives you through that grant can you request increasing grant funds through tanf if you can demonstrate a need to assist at a greater level for child care cost. The TANF block grant, it's a formula grant, I believe. I mean,
Speaker 24
56:29
the amount that Arkansas gets is determined by the feds. It's not something that we can request more of. Okay. All right. Thanks. Thank you, Senator. Thank
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
56:43
you so much for answering those questions.
So the report that we'll get on TANF will tell us where all the TANF grant funds are going to and where they've been. Okay. That would be helpful. Thank you guys so much. And real quick before we move on to summer ABT and finish up work pays, when you said there was $6 to $7 million possibly stolen from SNAP, what is the monthly amount for SNAP for Arkansas residents? The
Speaker 24
57:07
average monthly benefits we've issued over the last 11 months is a little over $41 million per month. Per month, okay, right.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
57:16
Thank you. All right, so if you want to jump back to that, I'm going to show you if we totally
Speaker 24
57:23
finished work pays or not. um mary franklin i'll let you work pays uh work pays is a program that serves um former tea recipients whose tea case closed because they went to work and they had earnings and work pays is an additional incentive program the goal of which is to help them to continue working and then increase their wages everyone who is eligible for work pays gets a 204 a month payment um and 87.8 percent of
those who apply for work pays are approved. Summer EBT is our newest program that the Division of County Operations is administering, and Summer EBT is a food benefit. It's a grocery buying benefit for low-income families to help replace nutritional meals that children receive during the school year when they're eligible for the National School Lunch Program. Each child who's eligible gets a $120 benefit for the entire summer.
It's $40 a month or $120 for the summer. And it is also issued through an EBT card and can be used to purchase the same foods that SNAP is purchased for. And in summer of 24, the first summer, we served 293,727 children. In summer of 25, that number was 336,107 children. In summer of 24, there were 283,091 children determined direct eligible,
meaning they came to us from Department of Ed as eligible for the National School Lunch Program, or we found them eligible because they received SNAP or T through our systems. We processed 15,165 applications for the summer of 24 with 68% approved. Our average days to process those applications received was 10. And in the summer of 25, again, our number of children served increased to 336,000.
Direct eligible children was 327,049. And I can, you know, a large reason for the difference or the increase in the direct eligible children was due to the fact that FNS approved Arkansas Department of Ed and Department of Human Services. We partnered and applied for them to allow us to use Medicaid as another way to make children direct eligible for summer EBT, and that was approved.
And that explains a large amount of the increase in children who were determined direct eligible, which means they didn't have to apply. We were just able to issue them the benefits. We did process 9,058 applications. They were determined, 9,058 children were determined eligible by an application, not through direct eligibility. and we received a total of 19,493 applications for the summer of 25 and 46 percent of those were
approved in our average days to process those in summer 25 was three. The next bit of information I have provided you is just a look at volume, phone volume, between October of 2024 and August of 2025 and these calls handled by d8 by dco staff we received 1 million 322 131 phone calls into our call centers managed by dco staff in addition to that we have a call center that is
managed by a contractor for medicaid calls that received 580 286 calls in summer ebt we have stood up a temporary call center just to help handle that increased volume during the summer from from those clients and that is also handled by a contractor and that was a hundred and thirty thousand seven hundred and one calls so related to Medicaid snap t work pays and summer ABT we have we received over two million
phone calls and that does not include you know calls made to direct phone numbers for our staff these are just the calls that we have tracked through call center volume senator
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:01:49
yes ma'am good morning ladies good morning so as we're looking at all this we've just had this big discussion on medicaid and snap and all that tana tell me how how do we we've got a lot of people in here how do we determine through the
employability and the training and the daycare and all that how somebody's benefited and have they moved off of the programs or are they still on the programs have they moved to better jobs do we have a way of of documenting any of
Speaker 24
1:02:22
that so yes ma'am we we do track the outcomes the reasons the reasons why a case closes and we there are reports that we you know provide to the feds and uh let's see now are
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:02:38
we showing that people are leaving these programs for better jobs because
of the education and training that they've had or or the services we've provided so they they're not on the program anymore
Speaker 24
1:02:51
so i mean and that's we can provide you a list of the closure reasons for tea and some of them are leaving because of income yes and that everybody in work pays left because they had earnings but in TANF and and Medicaid and snap are we that that's our goal
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:03:06
is to move people out of there so are we doing that is that happening
Speaker 24
1:03:14
it is it is happening to a degree yes ma'am I mean everyone doesn't
leave the program because they don't need the program anymore a lot of a lot of the reasons why someone closes is because they they are no longer meeting the requirements or
Speaker 40
1:03:27
they're not providing information it doesn't necessarily mean that their household situation has changed but it does sometimes my point is i guess if our goal is
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:03:36
to move people to a bit more self-sufficiency are we doing that that that's that's really my question thank you senator hammer thank you ma'am chair i
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:03:50
want to go go back to the conversation around the voucher program and
the programs that y'all offer kind of tagging on senator english's question do you have the ability to interact with the department of ed who now has the voucher program for the child care do you have the ability to interact with their systems to see if those that are receiving the vouchers over there are receiving any of the assistance through any of the programs that y'all offer or are you prohibited from sharing that information because you're two
Speaker 24
1:04:25
different agencies. Senator Hammer, I can tell you that our integrated eligibility system offers an avenue for
clients who are interested in applying for child care assistance. They can do that at the same time they apply for SNAP, Medicaid, or T in our system, and our system sends a referral to the Department of Ed. Our system doesn't determine the eligibility, but it sends a referral. So in that way, there's a connection at least as a referral but to answer the question do we know everyone who is receiving child care on the
Speaker 83
1:04:59
snap t and medicaid side no we don't have that information i mean
it's not not something that is cross-referenced in our systems
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:05:12
so talking out loud would it be beneficial for y'all to be able to and your
answer made it sound like it was on the recipient to pursue and to share that information but would there be a benefit if you and the Department of Ed were to collaborate to
share that information between those that are receiving these benefits and those that are receiving the child care voucher so that we could look at Joe Smith and say, here's a list of everything they're receiving related to assistance in child care? Are you saying you can do that now, or you can't do it now, or you could do it, you're just not doing it? That's what
Speaker 24
1:06:07
I'm trying to figure out. So at DHS, our system is integrated and helps us determine eligibility for the programs that
we administer. So Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, T, Summer EBT, we do a referral for child care if someone has indicated they are interested and need child care assistance. We do that referral. But the systems, Arkansas Department of Education handles child care eligibility assistance programs. So we don't have visibility into everyone who receives child care. It is something that we could potentially work on and potentially, you know, make it more efficient in that, you know, if there's information we have that someone's already provided that also might be needed to determine child care eligibility that they didn't have to provide it in both places.
Speaker 83
1:07:05
And there could be some efficiency achieved if we shared information across those systems. We are not there at this point. Okay,
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:07:16
so could somebody be receiving child care assistance through some of these programs and receiving child care assistance out of the voucher program and you and the Department of Ed never know that they're receiving child care assistance from both you and them? So
Speaker 56
1:07:34
I think that they would have to be the ones to answer that question definitively
because they determine child care eligibility. I just don't
Speaker 24
1:07:43
want to speak for them as far as their visibility into if someone is getting TANF child care because they also issue that benefit, even though it's for our TANF client, our T client, they actually issue that benefit and arrange for that child care. So I just don't want to say something that may not be correct that
Speaker 83
1:08:02
they would better be the ones to answer. Janet, you look like you want to say something.
Speaker 22
1:08:11
I do. I think we don't have a definitive answer, but we'll take it back to
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:08:16
the team. I wish you would, because in wrestling with the issue of the child care voucher and listening to the discussion today, if there are, and I don't know if there are or not, I mean, so it may not even be an issue, but if there are those that are receiving child care assistance through this program over here that you offer, but they're receiving child care assistance over on the voucher program, I think that would be good for everybody to know, because when it comes to the true cost of which I've got the number right here
as far as when the voucher program is going to be depleted of funds subject to the government coming out of their shutdown and us knowing what the true number is going to be to fill in the blanks on here. And it may not even be a case, but if parents are receiving from both funnels, I think that's good for us to know as far as what's being paid out for true child care costs. The last question I'd ask is, do you know what dollar value on child care costs that you pay out cumulatively for all these programs?
Speaker 56
1:09:21
I know that we provide $7.5 million in the TANF
Speaker 24
1:09:25
block grant funding to help fund the ABC program that's administered by the Department of Ed, But I do not have a specific child care number to give you for T recipients or work pays recipients today But that is something that we can request if you don't mind. I'm a member of the chair
Speaker 83
1:09:40
committee But thank you madam chair Maybe they
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:09:43
could send that to staff and I get a copy not even being a member of the committee, please. Thank you Happy to senator hammer representative vought
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:09:53
Thank you madam chair. I just kind of want to
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:09:57
piggyback off of Senator hammer when y'all did have the program. Did you see the clift coming? This is one of the questions that I ask the Department of Ed. When was it noticed that this was about to fall off the cliff? Like we were adding people, adding people, adding people, adding people, but could not sustain the number of people that was actually being added. So when it left DHS and we moved it to Department of Ed,
did you know of the cliff that was coming, or was you aware of the cliff that
Speaker 26
1:10:34
was coming? i don't believe so but we will go back and look we've not been part of the ade conversation when when things transferred i mean every lock stock and barrel staff and systems and everything moved so um i just i don't know that
Speaker 25
1:10:48
i have an answer for you today but we will go back and look i'd appreciate that because i
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:10:53
want to know when we saw it headed this way does that make sense what
i'm saying secretary like there had to be a point in time i'm a farmer there's a point in time when you say oh crud like i'm gonna have to have x amount of hay and x amount of feed to make it through the winter i don't have it and i don't have the funds what am i going to do so at some point there had to be a time when we knew this was headed toward us and i want to know when that was i understand what you're asking thank you
Speaker 25
1:11:27
i just don't have an answer today oh that's fine
Speaker 189
1:11:30
thank you ma'am you're welcome representative brown thank you
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:11:35
madam chair um senator hammer brought up a question in my mind with
his with his uh question for you uh if if someone were receiving child care a child
care benefit through tana and through the sra program that's administered by Department of Ed is that permitted I
Speaker 71
1:12:01
would not think so because it is double dipping
on benefits but I think that is also
Speaker 26
1:12:07
not something we have prepared to answer so I think we want to go back and
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:12:13
double check the process because as Ms. Franklin said she makes a referral in case management works with child care on those vouchers so that would be within the child care program and I can't speak for the program's operations at ADE so that is something that we have heard that we definitely need to go back and discuss internally and with
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:12:36
ADE. I think that's good because
we want to eliminate as much fraud as possible and you know it could be inadvertent you know It could be somebody says, okay, well, I'm eligible here. Oh, I'm eligible over here. And they just apply for both, and they get both, and they may not. I mean, I don't know what the process is or what kind of information they're given, but they could inadvertently be double-dipping and not know that that's not
allowed. Yes, ma'am. So we need to tighten that up, in my opinion.
Speaker 24
1:13:17
we'll go back to our report. Okay. Community Services Block Grant is another block grant that DHS and Division of County Operations administer. The purpose of CSBG is also to help reduce poverty, promote self-sufficiency, and revitalize low-income communities. The types of projects that are supported by the community service block grant are those that would help eliminate poverty, foster self-sufficiency, and address the needs of low-income individuals and provide services like employment, education, how to better use your available income, housing, nutrition, emergency services, and health.
CSBG is a federally funded program. It is administered through Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. And the funding in CSBG is distributed to the 15 state community action agencies. And they are the ones that implement a variety of programs within these broad parameters based on community needs assessments that each of those agencies does in their local community. and they have the flexibility to implement programs that best meet their needs in their communities.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:14:34
Could you tell us what the annual amount is for that statewide?
Speaker 24
1:14:37
Do we know? It is around $10 million. I can get you an actual figure. Thank you. $10 million is a good approximate. Okay, thank you. All right. We do have some barriers and challenges to providing these services, and we have talked about some of these. I will go through them.
Workload and increasing workload is always a challenge. With the numbers that I shared, we receive over 400,000 applications. We complete more than 730,000 renewals, process over 700,000 changes for Medicaid, SNAP, and T. we operate 79 county offices and two processing centers around the state completing all that work involves two point like over two million tasks because casework is a is a step-by-step process so it's not often that we're able to do do one thing and
complete it at the same time it's often steps that we have to take to do that we've completed over 276,000 eligibility interviews with clients and handled over 1.3 million phone calls and that does not include countless you know in-person interactions that occurred in county offices or direct dialed numbers and we have approximately 875 case workers a little over 400 clerical workers and around 300 frontline supervisors and support staff and we we do leverage system automation to
the extent that we can where it's possible to help us with some of this work and and for casework we have some contract staff that help with Medicaid casework and phone calls federal regulations do limit the use of non merit or non-state employee staff in the snap eligibility determination process this means that we can't use contractors to help us with snap when it comes to casework if we have an emergency or difficulties or when we're administering new
programs. One other thing I'll mention related to workload is that policy changes that make sense from a program integrity and personal responsibility perspective can still add complexity, add to the volume of workload, and increase the potential for caseworkers and us make mistakes when we do that work there are upcoming changes brought on by they're up by the federal law the medicaid requirement to work and increasing the frequency
of renewals for our adult expansion group in medicaid from annual renewals to every six months that is going to add to our workload there are newly mandated increases expansion in the snap requirement to work that we will be implementing very soon. That increase the age limit for those able-bodied adults without dependents from age 54 to 64 is being added and including individuals
between 19 and 64 that have a dependent child who is above age 13. So those are new groups that are going to be um mandatory for the snap requirement to work in the very near future um real quick
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:18:09
before we move on to the next so i know in the past we've talked about turnover of so we've increased pay a little bit for our case workers so are we seeing a little slower turnover rate what is that what
Speaker 24
1:18:22
are we looking like we are seeing slower turnover than we did during the pandemic i would say we are probably not quite back to the turnover level we were at before the
pandemic ever happened but it is definitely better than the pandemic we have not hired a large number of people since the pay plan was implemented so i think it's a little early to to tell but there are a large portion of our our field staff our frontline staff that do this eligibility work that did benefit from that pay plan and the increase in the market rate and we are hopeful that that improvement in the salary is going to help us to attract and retain individuals. How many
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:19:01
open spots do you have right now across the state for employees in the county?
Speaker 24
1:19:06
Well, we have more than 100 vacancies, but we are monitoring very carefully and working to stay within our budget and make sure that we don't fill positions that we don't have funds to support. So we are filling a few at a time as we monitor our budget. Thank you. Welcome. So there are other changes in our SNAP program. We have a child support enforcement requirement in SNAP for both custodial and non-custodial parents, and we are working to move from a voluntary to a mandatory SNAP employment and training program.
We've requested to be able to make that move effective April 1. And all of these things combined just add to the work that we need to get done and also add to the challenge of getting it done on time and doing it right. We talked about the significant changes coming with Medicaid being the work requirements and the increase in renewal frequency and also some changes related to who is eligible, who meets citizenship requirements and who doesn't that we'll be implementing.
And we discussed the changes in SNAP, including the increase of individuals required to participate in the requirement to work. And in the SNAP program, that means if you are not meeting that work requirement or considered exempt or complying, then you can only receive SNAP benefits for three months out of a 36-month period. And the admin cost of SNAP is going to increase. That increase takes effect October 1 of 2026,
where we mentioned that we expect an increase of $24 million for the state share to support the administration of SNAP. That's the day-to-day doing business of SNAP. And then on beginning October 1 of 2027, The state could have to pay a percentage of the actual SNAP benefits based on what our current error rate is at that time. And we talked about the stolen benefits issue.
It's been a nationwide problem for a couple of years, but particularly hit Arkansas hard starting around July. We were targeted. We did not talk about all the things we had done to try and help prevent that when this flared up. So, you know, had such a significant increase. But we have worked with FNS. We have met several times with USDA Office of Inspector General who told us that similar things had just recently occurred in Mississippi and Louisiana
and that they felt like it was a criminal team just moving through the states and that hit Arkansas. We have increased the fraud controls on our toll-free, we call it integrated voice response, the toll-free number that clients can call to activate their cards or change their PIN number or request a replacement card. Even that phone line was targeted by machines trying to detect guess PINs, change PINs, those types of things.
we have also been using the transaction data you know we learned a lot in all these meetings with OIG and FNS and so we we are also looking at that data now and based on what clients are reporting if we start to see benefits being spent in another state we are forwarding that information about those particular places or FNS terminals where those benefits are being spent and asking to help them asking FNS to to stop those or reissue new numbers for those because it's often it's not
necessarily that those are bad actors but the criminals have like taken over or cloned those devices in the other state we've done a lot of media several interviews we've done media social media we've created a website that helps our clients just encourages them to keep you know change their pins often gave them instructions on how to use the on their the online website and download the app and make their changes through that and instead of the phone number because
our increased fraud controls unfortunately are also making it hard for our own clients to get through to that toll-free number which is very unfortunate but we it is still happening I would not say that theft is not still happening but it is definitely not being reported to us and we are not seeing that same volume of benefits being stolen in other states so it has gotten better things additional things we'd like to do to fix this problem and you know I mentioned in the
report that EBT technology as a whole is just lagging behind regular debit card industry standards you know our debit cards have a chip in them now not just a stripe and the EBT cards still by and large have just a stripe. California has recently moved to a chip card. Oklahoma, just a county. Just a county in California. Just California is a county-administered state in just one county. Oklahoma is getting ready to pilot a transition away from the magnetic stripe cards to chip cards.
There's a couple of other states. But Arkansas, we're planning to be one of those states, those early states that move the technology away from the magnetic stripe card and toward the chip card we current we have requested that in our request for proposals to get our new ebt contract and so that's going to be a process that's going to take a while but that's one of the things that we're doing to try and help combat this and then ultimately make it
much harder for thieves to target our clients timeliness and accuracy is another challenge um and we are committed to processing our applicant all of our work within time frames and to do it correctly that that is some of our top priorities but i i can um and we're doing better we are are doing much better in both of those areas but i do want to it's taken a lot of work we do a lot of close monitoring and managing making sure our snap eligibility interviews get
scheduled early in monitoring you know what's going on with applications if there are any bottlenecks in any of our processes to make those improvements but in in addition to those things we needed to do to make sure we were processing work faster internally i just want to make you aware of some challenges that are you know built into the regulations and one of those things is fns measures state timeliness based on the timeliness of the applications in that quality
control sample that that random sample of cases which is a little over a thousand cases were they timely or not and that is how fns officially determines if a state is timely well we have over 120 000 households that receive snaps so it's it's a very small snapshot that they are taking. And in addition to that, households are given 60 days from the date they apply to provide everything that's needed and participate in SNAP or have their benefits approved. But we
are measured at the 30-day mark. So if we approve anyone past the 30th day, even if the delay is caused by the client because the client didn't return what we needed, it still factors into how FNS calculates our timeliness so just wanted to make you aware of that challenge there are some things that we are doing to help help that which will include trying to get those EBT cards mailed even faster whenever we get our new contract in place plus the work that we will continue to do
to monitor our own internal processes to make sure we're working as quickly as possible um accuracy i did want to highlight as an improvement oh in in in the accuracy discussion as a challenge we are held accountable for the accuracy of snap benefits even if it is a client caused issue you know both both the mistakes we make as an agency
administratively we calculate the income wrong or we don't include information we should have included in the determining the benefits those same types errors that the client might make that cause inaccuracy the state is held accountable for accuracy across the board i am proud that we have improved our accuracy rate since the official rate for 2024 was published which was 9.56. Our latest report internally shows that we're at 6.88% with about 75% of
this previous federal fiscal year 25 reviews completed. And the last time FNS published a report that compared the states, we were at 13th in the country at that accuracy rate. So we are working very hard to continue making improvements in our accuracy there are several things that we are implementing including additional refresher training on a regular basis for our staff not just staff we identify as having problems but all of our staff that is one
of the things we're doing and we are also going to be sharing more information in plain language about what are the mistakes that are being made and what could be done to improve them, not with the purpose of calling out an individual or a county that made a mistake, but just with the purpose of this was a mistake that was made, this is what could have prevented it, just for awareness, so that we can all learn and grow from those type things. And we're also working on a deeper analysis of our QC errors
so that we can determine if we can proactively investigate cases or review additional cases to help prevent those errors. Also wanted to let you know that we have several ongoing data matches that we do with the purpose of improving and increasing program integrity, and that includes a daily match with the Arkansas Department of Corrections to determine if anyone receiving benefits is incarcerated. We do a monthly death match with the Arkansas Department of Health
and with the CMS territories and beneficiaries query. We do a quarterly and monthly match with the National Directory of New Hires for SNAP. We do a monthly Medicare match. We also do a monthly new hire match for the Our Home population. And we do quarterly public assistance and reporting information system. You all probably have heard of it as Paris. We do quarterly Paris matching to determine, you know, help us determine if someone is participating in Medicaid and SNAP in more than one state.
And most recently, in August of 25, we have implemented with FNS the National Accuracy Clearinghouse. And that is a real-time, different than Paris, which looks at participation in other states a quarter behind. The National Accuracy Clearinghouse is real time. So as someone applies here or recertifies here for SNAP, the other states that are now currently implemented in NAC, that is a real time match between us.
And FNS is requiring all of the states to participate in NAC by 2028. So that is a big improvement that I see being made in the SNAP program nationwide. And we won't have to rely on that quarterly, quarter behind information to check for duplicate participation. We will have it more real time. um we've we also talked about our Aries system the Arkansas integrated eligibility system and um that is a highlight of the way that we do work because it's integrated prior to having this
integrated eligibility system our workers were having to enter information in up to four different systems for the same client depending on what they applied for that our clients might have been filling out I think I counted up to eight different application forms to fill out the right application for the right program and now it's one application and we have automated our work to the extent that we we can where it makes sense for us to save time and it's allowed by federal our federal funding partners some examples of that Medicaid renewals we are required to do
ex parte meaning check our data sources and see if the information we know about the client is consistent with our data sources and if so then we can complete that renewal without having the client to have to do a form and send it back. We
Speaker 40
1:32:39
have that eligibility system doing things like automatically denying an application or closing a case if someone doesn't
Speaker 24
1:32:47
return information and the due date has passed. We have recently implemented a bot so we have started artificial
intelligent optical character recognition so that the machine reads the form and fills in some of the blanks for us for a caseworker to just verify and then continue the process we implemented the bot in our newborn Medicaid eligibility group because it's a group that we do well with we process those applications quickly and timely and but as a test you know into this new advanced technology, it was a good place for us to start to see how it goes and see how we might be able to
do more of those things. And I'm happy to report that this bot is able to complete 25% of our newborn applications without a worker having to touch those cases. And as we do more things like that, it will give our workers more time to handle the more difficult cases that, you know, require more time and attention. So we're going to continue doing things like that. We have recently applied for and received a grant for summer ABT to do a very similar thing, to have the machine read the
application, populate the information so that all a worker has to do is quickly confirm the information and then authorize the benefit. It is also going to include, we have also recently made an improvement automatic texting and communication for our anyone who has applied for services waiting for information on how that application is going and it for those who've signed up for these type of alerts it will give them like okay your
application has been scheduled for an interview okay remember your interview is coming up tomorrow and okay now we need information from you so we are actually hoping that that not only will it benefit our clients from the customer service perspective, we are hopeful that it will help reduce the number of calls that we get and the number of questions we may need to answer. And this more detailed information is also available for a client who looks at their account on our Access Arkansas website, which is also an improvement we made with our new eligibility system. Our clients can apply online. They can
receive email and text alerts if they sign up for them. They can upload documents directly to their case they can complete their renewals and report changes all of this online if they choose to i'm also happy to report that although we have been battling a backlog we are processing current case work now the only area where we still need to make some improvements to to where i would consider us current across the board would be return mail we still have more return mail tasks
than i would like for us to have but our team is focusing on getting those return mill tasks caught up and in general we are working current with applications and renewals and changes and other highlights just the implementation of summer ebt with it being a new program and the improvement we were able to make by getting permission to use medicaid as a direct match helped to improve that program and increase the number of children we served by about 14%
and we've also recently in June implemented presumptive pregnant women eligibility in Medicaid as a new category of service and in the first three months we're able to provide that prenatal coverage to more than 2,000 women while we were processing their application for
Speaker 40
1:36:27
the full coverage throughout the pregnancy and delivery and
Speaker 24
1:36:36
we were also asked to provide information about the process to access DCO services and I mentioned
everything is done in the step so the first step of an application is to apply and that can be done online in person it can be done by paper by sending it in the mail to us and by phone. Once we receive that application, if we receive a paper application, we scan it into the system. If it requires an appointment, if it's for SNAP or T, then we schedule that interview appointment. A DCO case worker then next handles the case and they will complete the interview. If it doesn't require an interview, they will update all of the data that
is required in the system and determine, they'll check our electronic data sources and determine if more information is needed in order to complete that eligibility determination. And if it is, they will request that information. The client will have time to return that information to us. And when it comes back, that same worker will complete that process. If it doesn't come back, then the system will automatically close or deny that case. Changes and renewals can also be completed online.
Renewals can be completed by phone. or in-person paper and they follow a very similar process you know if if an interview is required that's scheduled if not then a caseworker reviews the case updates the system with needed information checks data sources and then requests information if needed and when it comes back completes that eligibility action we were asked to provide information about our revenues in county operations. And for state fiscal year 2025, our funded budget is $267,565,518.25. And that funding
is 71% federal, 22% state, and 7% other revenue. Agency expenditures, we've broken down how we, you know our expenditures for staff and leadership me and my deputy directors and assistant directors our our we are 0.35 percent 0.35 of one percent of the total number of positions in county operations and 0.96 percent of the funded budget our staff who do grant and program management
program administration, policy, training, special investigations, that is 11.79% of our total positions and 13.63% of our total salaries. Our frontline staff who are processing applications, changes, renewals for our programs, that is 74.28% of our total positions and 68.66% of our total salaries, and our frontline supervisory staff are 13.58% of our total positions and 16.75%
of our total salaries. Our administrative expenditures for 2025, 71% of our expenditures are for salaries and fringe which is 116,797 dollars 790 116 million 797 thousand six hundred and eighty four dollars for maintenance and operation we spend 15 percent um which is 23 million nine hundred and eighty nine thousand and for it and capital outlay expenditures that's 11
percent at 19 million 241 000 and professional fees and services is three percent and or four million five hundred and seventy three thousand we provided information about our building leases in division of county operation we leased 79 buildings throughout the state we have at least one county office in all 75 counties here in pulaski we have three county offices in washington county we have an office and an annex and in saline county we have an office and an annex
and then we we own one building and that is the access arkansas processing center in batesville but our annual lease expense is 9.1 million and the space we lease covers 744 470 square feet and they are leased from multiple building owners and they house an average of 3,000 DHS staff, not just from county operations but from multiple divisions
including Children and Family Services, Aging Adult Behavioral Health Services and the Arkansas State Crimes Against Children Division. We do have some information below about some purchased administrative support, temporary clerical staff. We do have a couple of contracts that we use. We spent a total of $405,000. One of those contracts is 22nd Century Technologies, and the other is Express Services,
with $312,000 on 22nd Century and $92,000 Express Services. And with that, happy to answer any additional questions you all have. I just want to say you've done an excellent
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:42:12
job. Representative Pilkington has one question. Hey, over here. Thank you. Thank
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:42:16
you, Chair, for letting me ask the question, even though I'm not on the committee. On the building leases we have for the Department of Health, how often do we look at maybe moving those locations?
And the reason, it's kind of a leading question, but I'll tell you where I'm trying to lead to. As we've toured some of the areas in the state, especially some of these rural hospitals that are financially struggling right now, i'll notice large areas of unused space and sometimes i wonder if it would not be advantageous for us to move some of our county departments of health into those facilities not only to help the bottom line of those facilities but also make an easier warmer handoff as people go either to the emergency room and then of course need to be signed up on certain programs and if they uh of course
are maybe going to the department of health but actually need to see a provider sooner than later So
Speaker 215
1:43:08
I was just wondering, I mean, how often do we kind of review those leases to see
Speaker 24
1:43:15
if it's, you know, maybe advantageous for us to move those facilities? So our leases are of various different lengths depending on, so they don't all come due at the same time. Sure. But when they come due, we do start a process where, you know, we find out if the lessor is going to allow us to stay without charging additional, you know, without an increase.
If there is an increase, we attempt to negotiate that increase. And I will say this, we are opening to doing the things, you know, that make sense. Often, though, when, you know, if we need to increase the lease by, you know, a few percentage points over time, that is cheaper than the cost to actually relocate an entire office with the move, any renovation that needs to be done, furniture, all of those things. We are open to things that make sense.
We need to have an office in every county, but we are open to things that make sense as those leases start to come due. We have made some changes recently. Well, in the Pine Bluff, the Jefferson County office, that office needed to be updated and changed, And we had an opportunity to move to a building that was being vacated by a bank there in town.
And we were able to get that for a very reasonable price. And it was during the time where we had additional administrative funds from F&S due to the pandemic. So that was a change we made, I think, for the better to meet the needs of our clients and our staff in Jefferson County. We lost our lease a few years ago in Washington County and moved that entire office to some vacant space, actually, in the Northwest Arkansas Mall. And we have closed a few offices. We had some counties that had two offices, and we didn't need two offices to serve the clients in those counties, so we closed offices in those counties.
But as far as ongoing, where we go from here, we are open to things that make sense as long as the facility we move into is affordable. We can afford to actually make the move because moves are expensive. Sure. And that the facility can meet our needs of our clients, and not just county operations, but our children and family services that also have children on site as needed for visits and for when they're taking children into care, and that can be all hours of the night.
Speaker 211
1:45:52
But we're open to things that become available and always looking for ways that we can be
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:45:59
more efficient and save money. Sure, sure, and I understand that. I understand the leases come up at a different time. I guess my suggestion is just maybe in the future as those leases come up, I know it's very easy to just say let's just stick out here and eat a 2% or 3% increase in what we're paying, But I do think as some of these, you know, especially southern Arkansas facilities are struggling, if there's a way that we can consolidate and be in a similar location.
I mean, obviously we know someone might go to a facility, we tell them to go to the health department across town, and they never make it because just whatever reason. And so easier those, creating more warm handoffs so that not only our hospitals but also our, you know, Department of Health are working better hand in hand. And I know it's easier sometimes to have someone walk them across a hallway as opposed to, you know, having them drive across town. So just a suggestion. No action needed. I just was curious. Thanks. Appreciate the information. Thank you.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:46:55
I think that's it. Thank you again for an excellent report, Ruth. I can't tell
you how much I appreciate. I know you put a lot
of time and effort in that. So thank you very much. And
Speaker 71
1:47:10
Secretary Mann, we'll hear your quick report about the Life Choices
Speaker 26
1:47:14
Assisted Living Waiver. Thank you. Exhibit C1 and C2 are the monthly updates to the assisted living rate. When this letter was submitted, there was no change from one month to the next and no reported closures.
I am happy to report a subsequent event in accounting term. We have concluded the rate study. It will be going up on the website for 30-day comment. has two to three different rate rate studies or rate numbers there we will be recommending a flat rate so no change any questions all right thank you so much for reporting again thank you for
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:47:55
your time it was a long meeting thank you so
much for your time we appreciate it all right colleagues we need to take a motion on the preliminary report that we showed you earlier that the staff is made up for us is to give a get a motion go a second got a second all those in favor any opposed all right thank you very much we'll move forward with that report and um colleagues i thank you for your time i just know that your input is greatly needed on this if you have any recommendations or suggestions on a report please bring it to staff and with that
we'll say the meeting's adjourned thank you all for your time oh excuse me again uh thursday thank you we are having a meeting on thursday
and we'll be discussing the cliffs and i'll let senator english talk about who we have coming
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:48:45
on thursday so you guys will know on our thursday meeting we have a gentleman from the atlanta federal reserve who's going to come and talk to us on thursday about the benefit cliffs cliffs and alice that are very important things as we're looking at our social program and workforce development reforms.
Unknown speaker
1:49:05
See you on Thursday. With that, we're adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you.
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Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Department of Human Services (DHS) Updates on Division of County Operations [Exhibit B]
C. Update of Reimbursement Rates Under the Living Choices Assisted Living Waiver Pursuant to Act 213 [Exhibits C1-C2]
D. Discussion of Draft Preliminary Report
E. Discussion of Recommendations by Committee
F. Other Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 6
Speaker 8
Speaker 12
Speaker 13
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 22
Speaker 24
Speaker 26
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Speaker 36
Speaker 41
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
Representative David Ray
Unverified
Speaker 40
Speaker 71
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Speaker 83
Speaker 84
Speaker 27
Speaker 89
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 93
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 100
Speaker 114
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
Speaker 42
Speaker 125
Speaker 130
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Speaker 133
Speaker 64
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 23
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
Speaker 56
Speaker 137
Speaker 33
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Speaker 25
Speaker 189
Speaker 35
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
Speaker 215
Speaker 211