ALC-Hospital, Medicaid, & Developmental Disabilities Study Subcommittee
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- October 2, 2026
Unknown speaker
1:33
my son
for everybody to take your seats you're about to get started thank you.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
3:26
we see a corn 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 a reportar says Arkansas General Assembly on the top if you guys will remember when legislation was passed for the subcommittee we have to give a report due a year from today, at the end of the ninetyfifth 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 a subcommittee of the legislative council you'll see on the top but if you'll read that and we'll take a vote at the end of the committee meeting for that approval. I also asked our deputy director Wendy cartwright to do is just to give us a budget for DHS so as we're going through the each of these programs we'll see what their budgets each year so you 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 could 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 want you guys to have those things to look at for today so we will take votes on those later we're gonna 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 appreciate. I know it's an early start to ALc week and appreciate all of
you coming down toen English do you have anything to say before we get started OK? and appreciate everybody's participation here today you guys are tell us who you are and then just get started thank you. good morning
Speaker 22
5:15
janet mann secretary DHS. Good morning I'm Mary Franklin
Speaker 24
5:22
director of the division of county operations for DHS all right thank you both for
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
5:28
being here if you give us support for county
Speaker 26
5:31
operations we appreciate it. yes ma'am thank you very much for the opportunity to present county operations it's where we do the el get in with that just a little closer thank you you have no problems hearing me thank you county operations is the division that does all of our applications for eligibility for the all of our programs within
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
5:50
DHs and with that I'm going to let Mary Franklin discuss the details.
Speaker 24
5:59
good morning 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 healthcare eligibility and by healthcare we mean medicaid and CIP Children's healthalthsurance programme the supplemental nutrition assistance programme also known as Snap the transitionalmployments assistancegrame theorkpayce program which are both part of the TAf block grant
and summermer 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 tannF block grant through the work we do we have federal oversight this ap and summer EBT programs are administered through the US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service and the healthcare programs that we administer as well as the
tanf block grant in the CSBG block grant are all administered by US Department of Health and Human Services Cms administers medicaid and CIP and the administration for childrenldren and familiesmilies administers the TAf 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 operation include
providing accurate services to provide timely services and to provide effective case management services that help our team and workpays clients achieve self sufficiency and meet federal
Speaker 36
7:46
participation rates and we also want to provide competent efficient and courteous services to
Speaker 24
7:53
all of our clients. a little bit more information about each of these programs healthcare including Medicaid and CIP. it provides medically necessary healthcare
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 in 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 864,19 individuals in Medicaid and CIP. betweenen October 2024 and august of 25, we had processed
224,465 applications for services for healthcare and that average is 20,406 per month during that time period. we completed we processed applications in that same time period we completed337,705 applications which is an average of30,700 per month? the average number of days for us to complete a healthcare application during that time is 19. we approved53.6% of those
applications and we denied46.4% we completed over600,000 renewals during that same time period an average of54,903 per month and changes reported by clients or information that became available
Speaker 36
9:28
to us between July24 and July25 was493,623 for the healthcare program. for Snap
Speaker 24
9:37
this 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 that participating FNS authorized retailers our snap enrollment as of September 1st2025, we had 222,513 individuals which were part of 118,441 households in thesnap program we received
Speaker 36
10:16
156,347 applications between October of24 and august of 25 and that is an average of 14,24 applications per 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 was
Speaker 24
10:41
17 we approved47.5% of those
applications and denied52.5% of those applications during that same time period we completed 129,474 renewals for SnAP,
Speaker 36
10:55
which is an average of 10,790 per month and we completed242,650 changes for thesnap program during between July of 24 and June of 25. a little
Speaker 24
11:09
bit more information about the tannF block grant that we administer
the 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 tanniff block grant can
also be used to provide services that had previously been approved in the Arkansas
Speaker 41
11:57
that were authorized under prior law prior to ta. the
Speaker 24
12:02
ta program is funded by TAf Transitional Employment Assistance and this program is time limited in Arkansas it is 1el months and it is it this program is to help children 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
Speaker 36
12:39
that these parents can engage in those work and training and educational activities. our
Speaker 24
12:47
enrollment in thet program as of September 1st2025
Speaker 36
12:56
was 1731 individuals in717 households. we received between October of24 inpt 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 ata application is 9. and we approved5% of those
Speaker 24
13:27
applications and denied 95%. Our renewals completed for tea between October of24
Speaker 36
13:31
and august of 25 was 127 which is an average of 1el per month . Workpays is another can we hold off for just a minute you've dumped a lot of information and
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
13:42
I'm sure there's some questions. I know I have some questions so I'm gonna let's just stop right there that's ok no you're fine you're great.
I oncece again I really so much appreciate this form for us to look at and for us to look at things in detail and
just have a couple of questions so I'm gonna 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 lots right now of concerns of people that changes in the big beautiful bill will take some people off of medicaid and those that are not US citizens so but it's under my understanding is in the past can you clarify for us that people that are not US 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 are receiving
Speaker 24
14:29
medicaid are US citizens at this point so citizenship or eligible immigration status has always been a focus of
Speaker 36
14:38
healthcare medicaid and ipPP so it isn't so you you can be an undocumented person or here in the country illegally and receive medicaid if 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 and they need services in the ER that 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
Speaker 24
15:44
can receive Medicaid the other way is through the children's healthalthsurancegrame the CI P 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
Speaker 36
16:06
time that they are pregnant while they're here in the in the US and for the delivery of the child as well and for the delivery of the child other than that people who are not citizens meet the statutory definition of immigration statuss that are that are allowed for coverage for example, the an example here in Arkansas
would be our marshallese community. they're not US citizens but they are allowed to participate in Medicaid if they are financially eligible even though they are not citizens I'm sure
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
16:43
there'll be other other questions I'll step aside and come back in for some more. we'll start
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
16:51
with Representative Carolyn Brown. thank you madam chairir. I was just curious that is on the is it Ta the
the tea 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
Speaker 24
17:21
who aren't eligible apparently there could be several reasons the income limit for tea is513 dollars 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
17:41
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 paee cases the benefit amounts $81 a
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
18:05
month for one person just so I understand so they would be the the primary caregiver for this child? yes and
Speaker 24
18:15
it's $81 a month 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 dollars 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 to35 to40 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 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 in those monthly activities that
Speaker 36
19:08
are part of the plan that are designed to help
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
19:11
the person to not need tea anymore tea requires an 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 that I mean they would be eligible for snap and and
Speaker 24
19:26
other things right it would depend if they are if they meet the financial requirements for Snap then they can certainly receivesnap that
Speaker 36
19:32
adult could receive Medicaid for themselves if they meet the you know eligibility requirements
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
19:38
for medicaid so this 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
Speaker 24
19:49
the other benefits there are but it's it's a different program than the rest of our programs and the requirements are explained child support enforcement is another requirement and and eligibility interview is a requirement and through that process and 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 they're overcome or they don't want
Speaker 36
20:12
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 there is a whole list of reasons why an application could be denied well I'm not
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
20:23
being critical I was just curious it just thank you for explaining all that you're welcome RepresentativeRay Thank you madam chairir. So I've
Representative David Ray
Unverified
20:40
heard from several, first of all appreciate the overview of these programs it's very helpful I have heard from several people or entities that maybe applied for tanna 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 received Tanna funding and how that's changed year to year over the last five years is that something you could do?
Speaker 24
21:14
we can definitely provide a look back to for those funds to 2023 when when the tata program transitioned back to DHSrior to that it was administered through Department of Commerce the division of workforce Services but could you
Speaker 40
21:24
work with them to get the remaining years? Yes sir we'll work with them to see if we can get the complete5 years.
Speaker 26
21:33
that would be helpful and then if you guys would just get that to
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
21:39
Caitlyn she'll get it out to the whole committee so thank you
Representative David Ray
Unverified
21:46
and then just one more question Secretary
mann also on the tanf funds as I understand it the CACs are not receiving any Tanna funds this for this year and they have in the past. can you help me understand the decision there to discontinue funding the CACs through Tanna yes sir I do need to correct
Speaker 71
22:07
one thing. The CACs have received funding this year through December31st. Yes sir it
Speaker 26
22:16
it was reduced we reduced all of the subgrant 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
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
22:47
grant opportunity but as part of that five year look back more than happy
Representative David Ray
Unverified
22:53
to get you the CAC information also. so you're what you're saying is the the amount of funding for all the entities that received TAf was
Speaker 26
23:03
just reduced proportionally yes sir we had7 subgrantees that received six month grant while we were doing the analysis of what would be available for future sub grants 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 sub grants and we have not informed anyone of what will be happening in January we're in because we're still trying to see what's
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
23:41
going to happen with the shutdown all right, I appreciate y'all
Representative David Ray
Unverified
23:48
being willing to pull together that information and look
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
23:57
forward to reviewing that. Yes sir. thank you. Representative annnett thank you madam chairir. Good morning. ifsnap benefits are delayed or interrupted during the government shutdowns the department prepared to redirect recipients to other food assistant
Speaker 24
24:14
options so yes ma'am theoctober snap
benefits we have been notified in 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 our food pantries or food banks where they might receive assistance as well as other programs
Speaker 83
24:42
that in their wick although it's not administered by Department of
Human Services we would make appropriate referrals forIC or the other
Speaker 84
24:52
pro food programs that are administered in other departments. follow up will
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
24:58
that be on your website or is that information that you give them if they come to the office I think
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
25:06
it would be a combination of both and also probably some usage of social media trying to to make sure everyone would know mostst of that information probably would come through our local offices
Speaker 27
25:19
in the seventy5 counties though thank you thank you
Speaker 89
25:36
Representative Rye Thank you Mr Chairman.y on page four
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
25:41
it mentionsoctober 12027 and it mentions the benefits I guess the state share of the snout program
going from50 to75% can you can you guys give us a a little insight on how much money that we're talking in the future of how much we're going to have to
Speaker 24
26:09
budget for that yespresentative the change that you're referring to that that happensoctober 12027 came out of the federal one big Betiful act and it increases the state share of Snap administrative expenses
to administer the program from50% state50% federal to75% state and 25% federal and our estimate on the amount of that is about 24 million in increased state costs to administer the SnA program starting in October 1 yes ma'am I may
Speaker 93
26:44
have missed something but do you have a dollar figure?24
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
26:53
you're welcomesenator hammer thank you ma'am chair good morning. just a couple of questions on the Tanana funding is that 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 may be overfunded before are now going to be in line. Is that a fair assessment? I know that it seemed like there was a a period of correction where we have to get things in line with what we actually have. Is that fair?
Speaker 26
27:26
Yes sir. I do believe so we are now living within the four corners of our annual grant. there were several years of
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
27:33
reserves where several different things could be funded and the reserves are now being deplenished and so
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
27:39
the bounce of talent of of tanna 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 paperwork somewhere? I don't have the exact
Speaker 26
27:53
balance as of today I think we were doing the analysis
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
27:58
with the government shutdown.ANF has not been funded in inoctober. So I will get you a balance number.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
28:04
OK. and then on the balance discussion the government shut down 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 correct or did I misunderstand? For I
Speaker 26
28:20
believe Ms ranklin indicated for snap benefits we have
Speaker 100
28:23
been funded through October and if we're not funded
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
28:28
throughoctober do we have any reserves that can be utilized to carry
Speaker 26
28:34
that forward or did I miss that? No, sir. The, um, Miss I'm
Speaker 24
28:40
going to ask Miss Franklin to explain how the benefits get loaded so the the snap benefits the federal government made theoctober benefits available and this is typical the month before for states to use to issue benefits for the next month so theoctober 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 so the panic button
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
29:06
is going to be in the last week of October if they don't get things opened back up is that a fair statement? sir and then when it comes to individuals that receive the various benefits that you have on this handout you know where there's workpascBd EBT snap
tannoff do you have the systems in place that you can cross reference to determine if and I'm just grabbing a name out of there Joe Smith. Joesmith is getting benefits are you able to identify all the various benefits that Joesmith is getting by cross referencing all the programs that are
Speaker 24
29:50
available to him Senatorhammer the our we have an integrated eligibility system so for someone receiving healthcare
services, Snap, umm EBT tea or workpace those 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
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
30:13
program all right I'll have offline discussion. thank you.
Speaker 114
30:17
thank you senatorpresentative beck thank you madam chairir. just a the first
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
30:22
question might be a little bit too wide open but but just briefly if you could
explain that or maybe you can put a report together you know
looking at the tta 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 burst but several others are
any just a little bit of a nuts and bolts just to how you are doing that with those block grants like maybe who's who's
what group you're working with I guess or to provide those
Speaker 24
31:07
services so our tea and work pace eligibility categories those are funded by TAf 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 could be there's the career pathways programme which is also at least partially funded with thetaiff 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 assistanceollow up child care is some of child care
is also funded by thetaf block grant which helps families to be able to do training indoor working and then there can be other programs that have been funded with the reserves that were present
Speaker 40
32:17
to help focus on youth and prevention and training programs so so the
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
32:23
question I would have then it sounds great the is is would the
you you mentioned the tea stuff so so
as far as job preparedness with the so I can see where you know possibly someone needing to attend a class or something like that that'd be would need maybe some child care associated so they could is that how how do you administer that I mean is it just ok here's some money for child care and then they they go and utilize those ours requiring that they're they be involved with some type of a program that's approved maybe through you guys or some other force or I guess that's kind of what I'm kneeling at a little
bit there is like is it like if you want childcare to to can for educational purposes for work preparedness would you then look at that program that we're in and so yeah we'll certainly provide you child care to that her am I getting too much into the nuts
Speaker 24
33:28
and bolts of things so I think I can answer your question so and I wanna also make one thing clear the only cash that's provided tot andorkpace participants is that small amount of monthly cash I
mentioned if the household is 1 it's $81 if it's $2 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 childcare facilities that you know accept tpayment or you know to provide the service and and so yes what if we have a client in tierorkpays that needs childcare
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 how is our client doing are they are they doing what you know 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
Speaker 40
34:36
is some monitoring involved in that childcare
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
34:39
process thank you sort of a
different question you were talking about with the tea program that it's time limited in terms of the medicaid part of
Speaker 42
34:51
it the cat and tea program itself is limited to 1el months here in
Speaker 24
34:57
Arkansas 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 1el 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 taf program is limited to60 months and states have the flexibility to set their own time limit between 1el months and60 months. so as I understood it when
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
35:37
you were saying it I might have misunderstood it you were saying that
ass as far as the medical s aspects of it that was for a limited time right and now was that the so let me ask this was that limited time for the length of treatment or was it a limited time because you 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 a limited time for the amount of
Speaker 125
36:11
the treatment? OK let me let me separate the the tea program
Speaker 24
36:15
from that conversation we had about the time limited healthcare and that time limited healthcare 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 and except for that situation where it's 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
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
36:57
emergency only and I apologize I was actually referring to the the undocumented individuals so that time could someone be let me just point could someone be here for two years and then all of a sudden they
need this is a 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 and then initially trip this emergency
Speaker 24
37:40
medicaid and they would receive benefits I would not anticipate anyone receiving emergency medicaid for two consecutive years. I mean
this this is a finite number of days to care for the emergency not it's not intended for ongoing coverage
Speaker 40
37:54
of someone who does not meet citizenship requirements if someone were
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
37:58
here illegally for two years and they did 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 that correct? Emergency medicaid
Speaker 130
38:11
not these other programs that I'm yes but emergency all right thank you
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
38:18
thank you Representative Richardson thank you madam chair thank you guys for being here. I actually wanted to piggyback off of what Representative Beck just 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 that those are the only reasons they would receive them I just want to make sure I understand that correctly. Yes for emergency medicaid thank you my other question is as I'm looking
through the snap piece can you give me an idea of the the52% that's denied? what seems to be the reasons that these people are denied and then the second piece of that is is the se7 days that it takes to complete the applications is that better or worse than it was
Speaker 24
39:10
a year ago? So just like with the the tea 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% of the federal poverty level some households are denied because they are over the income limit you said 10
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
39:31
what what was the percent they can
Speaker 24
39:33
be denied for being over the income limit, they could be denied for not providing information that we need to verify eligibility. they could be over the resource limit they could be over the resource limit just different lists of reasons why someone could potentially be
Speaker 133
39:51
denied for snap you guys that the reasons if you wanted we could
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
39:59
provide you ' d be interested in seeing I don't know if the chair would
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
40:02
be ok 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 another
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
40:08
follow up question Representative Richardson was the last one of the days iss
Speaker 24
40:12
it better or worse? this is for the last 1el months and knowing where we have been, where we have come from this is better this is better thank you guys
Speaker 64
40:22
thank you senator Irwin Irvin sorry thank you madam chairir. hi good
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:28
morning. on the ap accuracy rate. how is the accuracy rate
Speaker 24
40:37
determined I can explain that to you let me start by saying that our federal fiscal year 24 final accuracy rate was 9.56% I saw thatok snap accuracy rate is
determined through a random sampling of active snap cases during the federal fiscal year so October 1 to September30th of of a year bases and it 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
Speaker 40
41:26
be in error through the quality control review sample that's how the payment accuracy rate is determined. We determine that ourselves in the state and report that to F andS 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 est im ate waiting for the federal government to determine the actual final rate based on the outcome of their reviews. OK, so the accuracy is defined
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
41:57
as what what is inaccurate is it something makes is it based on eligibility we we provided benefits and they weren't actually eligible to receive them or you're talk you're or the payments were paid out to an entity
that didn't qualify to receive them. What what defines accuracy? So it it it is
Speaker 24
42:22
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 a household that qualifies for snap they don't all get the same amount of money OK it depends on their income the allowable deductions which include shelter if more than half of their shelter are more than half of their monthly accountable income goes towards their rent utilities or home insurance accuracy accuracy administrative level and it could and it
it it could be that that review determines I'm just gonna say an example if the household was we we had approved them for350 dollars a month and the
Speaker 40
43:12
review determined they should have only gotten $275 then that75 dollars difference is is is an error It also could be we approved
Speaker 24
43:21
someone that 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
43:32
aware of in the client made a mistake and it made them to ineligible so so that that is what the review is to see is the case correct was the benefit
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:43
amount issued to the client correct? OK. so it's it's if it was issued correctly number one and then amount
determined number 2 if that was correct based on eligibility and so it's an administrative issue so to speak and then 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 is6.88% so we're moving in the right direction but we're still over that6% threshold we are so have y'all done any kind of calculations based on this as to what now will also be so you have an increase of the administrative costs of the program from50%
to75% which is 24 million and you have an increase based on this accuracy rate. have y'all done any calculations to see what
Speaker 24
44:45
that would be based on the current6.88%. 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 but if you're error rate is between6 and7.99% that is5% state contribution to the benefits and that is estimated that estimated cost would be $22.7 million based on the amount of SnAP benefits we have
Speaker 83
45:22
issued over the last 12 months OK so potentially if
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
45:29
we don't get that error right 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 ? No90 it's 90 per percentage point. but at that point how much is
it going to be I'm I'm trying to find a total amount of state share
that we are now going to have to provide to this proc to do Medicaid
Speaker 26
46:18
based on the changes at the federal level. yes ma'am. the Fmapp has did change this past week. yeah 1413 days ago and we have been looking at that and usually half a percentage to a percentage we've discussed is somewhere in the45 million dollars to $90 million range of additional SGR
We are also looking for looking forward in the future FFS and federal government will go ahead and start issuing the estimates for the following year and right now we have two different calculations going to where it could go down or it could level or
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
46:55
or go up so that's really3 sorry. So I don't have an answer going in the future but the Fmapp did change and it has this is the second year in a row that it's changed and gone down yeah. So I'm just
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:08
kind of recapping based on this information here
and this is only from one program change, Snap and the Fmap. I'm sure there
Speaker 26
47:20
may be others I'm not sure. and two program changes sosnap is the admin and the potential of the error rate the admin is on 101 of27 the error rate will be in effect on 101 of2828 so they are staggered a year and then the Fm map changes everyoctober one we probably should prepare a chart that'd be cool. that would
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:43
be great I think because I think it's important for us to see the increase on stategR that we're going to have to budget for and
plan for in the upcoming sessions ma'am and it's looking like it's going to be closer
to $200 million Over several years between 160 to200 million. OK. and
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 I'm assuming then if there's stolen benefits the state has to provide
Speaker 26
48:22
money for that or so there was part of the federal statute that expired on 1231 of24 that did allow federal funds to replace the benefits after that time period we we do not have a mechanism to replace those funds snap fraud
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
48:36
has grown ex ce s s ive ly across the country. I think we have reported on that I 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
Speaker 23
48:52
much has been stolen do you I don't know if you have any estimates. So I I can't give
Speaker 36
48:57
you an exact dollar of what has been stolen. I do know in states are not required to replace the benefits with state funds OK but in June we started or getting multiple reports
Speaker 24
49:09
from clients that their benefits are gone and they didn't spend them in looking at the transition
Speaker 36
49:17
action history we saw a lot of benefits being spent in New Jersey and pennsylvania and so you know the amount of benefits that we're spent in those two states in the month of June and July
Speaker 24
49:30
it was around6 to7 million dollars so a large part of that I would I would think it would be correct to say a large a part of that were stolen although we could have had clients who moved to that area and s or
Speaker 36
49:44
or we're in that area for whatever reason
and spent their benefits but not not to that degree not with the number of reports we were
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
49:54
getting OK so I mean basically it's their benefits were stolen from them but also from us but mainly from them and we can't replace them OK. thank you thank you senator Representative
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
50:10
Crawford thank you madam chair good morning ladies I want to go back to government shutdown inwick
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? and thank you for the question. I did
Speaker 26
50:35
see the same news alert thatwi 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 if no ma'am you have not heard anything other than what the
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
50:52
news has reported. Yes, that is correct. OK and you've heard nothing about I kind of wondered if he was gonna do that if
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
51:02
he would do the snap so nothing has come your way yet. No,
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
51:07
ma'am, nothing has come our way in in in extra funding or additional funding sources. OK, one other question what can the Medicaid trustst fund what can that
Speaker 26
51:17
be spent on so the medicaid trust fund is a compilation of multiple
accounts there are accounts used there for provider taxes they're which are administered by ax that can only be spent for those expenses the soda tax is is the only unrestricted account that can be used for all of medicaid and when I say unrestricted I'll
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
51:43
give you an 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 soda tax fund is the only unrestricted that can be used for any of the medicaid expenses that
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
52:07
are needed. and it's strictly Medicaid. it would not go into snapper ma'am or food anything strictly medicaid. No yes strictly medicaid. All right thank you thank you senator hammer
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
52:29
right quick question help me combine a conver help me and maybe this is long represented Beck's conversation a while ago and I'm just trying to get my mind around some things so grant me some latitude The discussion about the vouch voucher program for childcare that we had a week two weeks ago, however long that was sprinkled within some of these programs like theorkpays or some of these other ones they're there are components for
childcare 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 summer EBd tea and work page those all have restrictions on them that that childcare 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 that it would it
Speaker 56
53:23
would be for individuals participating with us in both tea and workpays and based on
Speaker 137
53:32
child care in order for them to continue working or doing their education and training or
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
53:39
work experience hours. and the source of funding for those for that component the childcare within these various programs has there have there been any funding the FMapp just came out I know that can in some ways it hurts us because we're advancing as a state so our reduction in map funding goes down is that
Speaker 24
54:01
correct? so the the childcare paid for by t and workkpace comes out of the taF block grant and and is not associated with the Medicaid
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
54:09
Fmapp. OK. and, and did you say we've had cuts in tanna funding or not? I know I know y'all are
trying to balance the outflow but have have there been any cuts in the taa funding. sir there's been
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
54:20
no cuts in the annual grant award, the annual grant award has remained the same. and is there any correlation any
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
54:32
connection between the voucher program that's administered by the department of edd and the funding that comes through these programs for parents that are receiving assistance for childcare. Any I'm 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
54:56
costs. Senator Hammer, I can I can confirm that um7.5 million dollars comes from
Speaker 24
55:04
the tannni block grant annually to the ABC program which is administered by the department of edd but I do not know how that or if that ABC program connects
Speaker 83
55:12
with the voucher program that was discussed last week it's just beyond my expertise and that's what probably have
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
55:18
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 why I'm asking and I'm hoping maybe y'all can explain is if any of the parents that received the voucher program funding for their childcare
and then the the funding through here can they apply for both or would they be able to receive both or their prohibited from receiving both they have to take one or the other or do you
Speaker 24
55:50
know so I don't know I don't know about the voucher program and and what other services you could you could apply for or have in addition to that but in thet and work pace programme
for those clients we're going to cover the childcare
Speaker 83
56:08
that's needed for them to participate with us and do the activities they're required
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
56:15
to do so I don't know why they would need more is what I'm saying 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 TAF if you can demonstrate a need to assist at a greater level for childcare cost. the taf block grant is it's a
Speaker 24
56:36
formula grant I believe I mean in the the amount that Arkansas gets is is determined by the feds it's not something that we can request
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
56:48
more of all right thanks thank you senator thank you so much for answering those questions so the report that we'll get on tann will tell us we're all a tanf grant funds are going to where they've been ok that would be helpful. thank you guys so much and real quick before we move on to summer ABT and finish up workpays. Can you when we when you said there was6 dollars to7 million dollars possibly stolen from Snap. How
much what is the annual loan I mean the monthly amount forsnap for Arkansas the average monthly benefits
Speaker 24
57:12
we've issued over the last you know 11 months is is a little over 41 million dollars per month per month OK right
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
57:21
thank you all right so if you want to get jump back to that think I'm gonna show you if we totally finished
Speaker 24
57:28
workpas or not, Mary Franklin might'll let you workpas workpays is a program that serves former tea recipients whose tea case closed because they went to work and they had
earnings and workpas 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 workpas gets a $204 a month payment and 87.8% of those who apply for work pays are approved summermmer EBT is our newest program that the county division of county operations is administering in summer EBT is a food benefit and it's a gross
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 programme each child who's eligible gets a $120 benefit for the entire summer. It's40 dollars a month or 12 $0 for the summer and it is also issued through an ET card and can be used to purchase the same foods that snap is purchased for and in summer of
24, the first summer we served293,727 children in summer of 25, that number was336,107 children. in summer in summer of 24 there were 283,91 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 tea through our
systems we res we processed fi5,165 applications for the summer of 24 with68% approved. our average days to process those applications received was 10 and in the summer of 25 again our number of children served increased to336,000 direct eligible children was327,049 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 Fine 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 ABT 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 and46% of those were approved and 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 of2024 and august of 2025 and these calls handled byA by DCO staff. we received 1,322,131 phone calls into our call centers managed by BCO staff in addition to that we have a a call center that is managed by a contractor for medicaid calls that received580,286 calls and 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 130,0701 calls so related to medicaid snapTorkpays and summermaryBT we have we received over 2 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
Speaker 33
1:01:47
have tracked through call center volume Senator
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:01:54
English has a quick question for you. Yes ma'am. good morning ladies. good morning so as we're looking at all this and we've just had this big discussion on Medicaid and snap and all that kind of 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 or 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
Speaker 24
1:02:27
any of 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 in let's see we are we showing
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:02:43
that people have 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
Speaker 24
1:02:56
the program anymore 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 inorkpace left tea because they had earnings and in and and medicaid and Snap or we that that ' s our goal is to move people out
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:03:11
of there so are we doing that is that happening it is it is happening to a
Speaker 24
1:03:22
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
Speaker 40
1:03:32
meeting the requirements or they're not providing information it doesn't necessarily mean that they're household situation has changed but it does sometimes my point is I guess
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:03:41
if our goal is 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
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:03:55
thank you madam chairir. I want to go go back to the conversation around the
voucher program and the programs that y'all offer kind of tagged on center English's question do you have the ability to interact with the department of edd who now has the voucher program for the childcare 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 assistants through any of the programs that y'all offer or are you
prohibited from sharing that information because you're two different agencies.
Speaker 24
1:04:30
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 to they can do that at the same time they apply for snap medicaid or orta in our system and our system sends a referral to the department of edd 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 childcare
Speaker 83
1:05:04
on the snapt and medicaid side, no we we don't have that information I mean it's not not something that is cross referenced in our systems . so talking out
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:05:17
loud would it be beneficial for y'all to be able to and and your answer made it sound like it was on the recipient
to pursue and to share that information but u would there be a benefit if you and the department of edd work to collaborate to share that information between those that are receiving these benefits and those that are receiving the childcare voucher so that we could look at Joe Smith and say here's a list of everything they're receiving related to
assistance in childcare there you are you saying you can do that now or you can't do it now or you could do it you're
Speaker 24
1:06:12
just not doing it. that's what 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 CIPsnap, Ta work pac summer EBT we do a referral for childcare
if someone has indicated they are interested in need childcare assistance we do that referral but the systems department of Arkansas Department of Education handles childcare eligibility assistance program so we we don't have visibility into everyone who receives childcare it is something that we could potentially work on and potentially you know make it more efficient in that you know
if if there's information we have that someone's already provided that also might be needed to determine childcare eligibility that they didn't have to provide it in both places and
Speaker 83
1:07:12
there there could be some efficiency achieved if we shared information across those systems we are we are not there at this
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:07:21
point. OK. so could somebody be receiving childcare assistance through some of these programs and receiving childcare assistance out of the voucher program and
you and the department of edd never know that they're receiving child care assistance from both you
Speaker 56
1:07:39
and them. so I don't think that they would have to be the ones to answer that question definitively because they determine childcare eligibility like I I
Speaker 24
1:07:48
am you I I just don't want to speak for them as far as their visibility into if someone is getting tann of childcare because they also issued that benefit even though it's for our taf client our tc client they
actually issue that benefit in arrange for that childcare so I just don't
Speaker 83
1:08:07
wanna you know say something that may not be correct that they would better be the ones to answer Janet you look like you
Speaker 22
1:08:17
want to say something I do. I think we don't have a definitive answer but we'll take it back
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:08:21
to the team. I wish you would because in wrestling with the issue of the childcare 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 childcare 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 the shutdown and us knowing what the true number is going to be to fill in the blanks on here if if par and it may not even be a case but if parents are
receiving from both both funnels I think that's good for us to know as far as as far as what's being paid out for true childcare costs. The last question I'd ask is how much do you know what dollar value on childcare cost that you pay out
Speaker 56
1:09:27
cumulatively for all these programs I know that
Speaker 24
1:09:30
we provide7.5 million in the tanf block grant funding to help fund the AC program with debts administered
by the department of edd but I do not have a specific childcare number to give you for tea recipients or workpays recipients today but that is something
Speaker 83
1:09:45
that we can request if you don't mind I'm
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:09:48
a member of the committee but thank you ma'am chairir. Maybe they could send that to the staff and I get a copy not even being a member of the
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:09:56
committee, please. Thank you. to senator hammerpresentative Vott thank you madam Chair. I just kind of want to piggyback off
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:10:02
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 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 were 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 was coming?
Speaker 26
1:10:40
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 lock stock and barrel staff and systems and everything moved so I don't know that I have an answer for you
Speaker 25
1:10:53
today but we will go back and look. I'd appreciate that because I want to know when we saw it
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
1:10:58
headed this way. does that make sense what I'm saying Secretary like there had to be an 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 gonna 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
Speaker 25
1:11:32
what you're asking I just don't have an answer to
Speaker 189
1:11:34
that that's fine thank you ma'am you're welcome Representative Brown. thank you madam chairir.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:11:43
senator hammer brought up a question in my
mind with his with his question for you. if if someone were receiving child care a
childcare benefit through TAF and through the SRA programme that's administered by Department of Ed iss that permitted? I would
Speaker 71
1:12:06
not think so because it is double dipping on benefits but I think that is also not
Speaker 26
1:12:13
something we have prepared to answer so I think we want to go back
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:12:18
and double check the process because as Miss Franklin said, she makes a referral in case management works with childcare on those vouchers so that would be within the childcare 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 and discuss internally and with ADE I think that would that's good because
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:12:45
we want to eliminate as much fraud as possible and you know it could be inadvertent you know it could be somebody says ok well I'm eligible here and ohh I'm eligible over here and they just apply for both and they get both and they don't 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 so
we need to we need to tighten that up in my opinion thank you
Speaker 24
1:13:20
Thank you. OK. will go back to our report. OK. community services block grant is another block grant that DHS and division of county operations administer the 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 servicevice 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 humanervicesdministration for Children and familiesmilies and the funding in CSBG is distributing distributed to this 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 could you tell us what the annual amount
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:14:39
is for that statewide do we know it is around 10 million
Speaker 24
1:14:42
dollars. I can get you an actual figure but 10 million is a good approximate OKok thank you
right we do have some barriers and challenges to providing these services and we 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 we receive over400,000 applications we complete more than730,000 renewals process over700,000 changes for Medicaidsnap and Ta
we operate79 county offices and two processing centers around the state, um, completing all that work involves two point like over 2 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 inperson interactions that occurred in county offices or direct dialed numbers and we have approx x im ate ly 875 caseworkers, a little over400 clerical workers in around300 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 nonstate 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 to workload is that policy
changes they that makes sense from a program integrity and personal responsibility perspective can still add complexity add to the volume of workload and increase the potential for for caseworkers and us to 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 SnA requirement to work that we will be implementing very soon that increased the age limit for those able bodied adults without dependence from age54 to64 is being added and including individuals between 19 and64 that have a dependent child who
is above age 13. so those are new groups that are going to be mandatory for the snapP requirement to work in the very near future.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:18:14
real quick 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 caseworkers so are we seeing a little slower turnover rate what is that what are
Speaker 24
1:18:27
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
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:19:06
how many open spots do you have right now across the state for employees
Speaker 24
1:19:11
in the county we have more than 100 vacancies but we are monitoring very carefully and working to stay as 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 insnapP for both custodial and noncustodial 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 be 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
receivesnap benefits for three months out of a36 month period and the admin cost of snap is going to increase that increase takes effectoctober 1 of2026 where we mentioned that we expect an increase of $24 million for the state's share to support the administration of SnA that's the day to day doing business of Snap and then on beginningoctober 1 of2027, 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 that has it 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 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 tollfree we call it integrated voice response the the tollfree 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 you know by machines trying to trying to you know 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 the 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 tollfree number which is very unfortunate but
we it is still happening 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 stripedor has recently moved to a chip card Oklahoma just a county just uhor is a county administer ed state and 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 gonna 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 you we have requested that in our request for proposals to get our new EBT contract and so that's gonna 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 and we are
committed to processing our applica all of our work within time frames and to do it correctly that that is some of our top priorities but Iu I can and we're doing better we are are doing much better in both of those areas but I do want to it 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 the 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 1000 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 given60 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 dayy mark. So if we approve anyone
past the30th day even if the delay is caused by the client because the client didn't return what we needed it's 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 accuracy I did want to highlight as an improvement 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 of errors that the client might make that cause inaccuracy the state is held accountable for accuracy across the board. I 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 at6.88% with about75% 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's 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 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 or a county that made a mistake but just with the purpose of this was a mistake that was made and 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 proactive ly investigate cases or or review additional cases to help prevent those errors also wanted to to let you you know let you know that we have several ongoing data matches that we do with the purpose of you know 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 forsnap we do a monthly medicare match we also do a monthly new hire match for the our homeme population and we do
quarterly public assistance in reporting information system you all probably have heard of it as Paris we do quarterlyparris matching to determine uhdu you know help us determine if someone is participating in medicaid andsnap in more than one state and most recently in August of 25 we have implemented with FNS the national accuracy C clearinghouse and that is a realtime different thanparris 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 realtime match between us and FNS is requiring all of the states to participate in NAac 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 should we'll have it more real time
we've we also talked about our AI system the Arkansas integrated eligibilityystem and 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 to4 different systems for the same client depending on what they applied for that our clients might have been filling out I think counted up to 8 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 have that eligibility system doing things like automatically denying
Speaker 40
1:32:44
an application or closing a case if someone doesn't return information in the due date has passed wed and
Speaker 24
1:32:52
we have recently implemented a bot so we have started artificial intelligence 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 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 forummBT to do 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 that involves 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 ok your application has been scheduled for an interview OK remember your interview is coming up
tomorrow and ok 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 it we are hopeful that it will help reduce the number of calls that we get in the number of questions we may need to answer and this this more detailed information is also available for a client who looks at their account on our A 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 casework 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 In other highlights just the implementation ofummm EvT 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 2000 women while we were processing their application
Speaker 40
1:36:32
for the full coverage throughout the pregnancy and delivery. and
Speaker 24
1:36:41
we were also asked to provide information about the process to accessdCO services
and I mentioned everything is is done in a 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 tea then we schedule that interview appointment a DCO caseworker 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 determined 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 changes in renewals can also be completed online renewals can be completed by phone or inper 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 $267565,518.25 and that funding is71% federal,22% state and7% other revenue agency expenditures we've broken down how we s you know
our expenditures for staff and leadership me and my deputy directors and assistant directors our so our we are0.35%,35 of1% of the total number of positions in county operations and.96% 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 for our programs that is74.28% of our total positions and68.66% of our total salaries and our frontline supervisory staff, our 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 dollars7916 million797,684 dollars for maintenance and operation we spend 15% which is 23,989,000 and for IT and capital outlay
expenditures that's 11% at 19,241,000 and professional fees and services is3% and or4573,000. we provided information about our building leases in division of countunty Operation we lease79 buildings throughout the state we have at least one county office in all75 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 Acc access Arkansas processcessingenter in Batesville but our annual lease expense is 9.1 million and the the space we lease covers744,470 square feet and they are leased for multiple building owners and the house an average of,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 crimemesgains childrenren 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 spend a total of405,000 1 of those contracts is 22nd centurychnologies and the other
is expresservices with312,000 on 22nd century and 9200 express services and with that happy to answer any additional questions you all have I just want to say you've done
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:42:17
an excellent job because like representing pilkington has one question everyv thank you
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:42:21
thank you chair for letting me ask the question even though on the committee on the building leases we have for the department of healthalth. 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 making 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 of course are maybe going to the department of healthalth but actually need to see a provider sooner than later. So I
Speaker 215
1:43:13
was just wondering I mean how often do we kind of review those leases to see if it's you
Speaker 24
1:43:20
know maybe advantageous for us to move those facilities. so our our leases are various different links depending on so they don't all come do at the same time but when when they come to we do start a process where you know we find out if the 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 makes sense often though when you know if we need to increase the 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
have 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 and the the palm bluff the Jefferson County office that office you know with needed 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 very reasonable price and it was during the time where we had additional administrative funds from FNS 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 we have closed a few offices we had some counties that had two offices and we didn't 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 and that the facility can meet our
needs of our clients and it not just county operations but our children and family services that you know also have children onsite as needed you know for visits and for when they're taking children into care and that can be all hours of the night so but we're open to things that become available and always looking for ways that
Speaker 211
1:45:59
we can be more efficient and save money Sure, sure and I I understand that understand the leases
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
1:46:04
come over a different time I guess my suggestion was just maybe in the future as those leases come up, you know, I know it's very easy to just say let's just stick out
here and you know eat a 2 or3% 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 our hospitals but also our you know Department of Health are working better hand
in hand. 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 no no action needed. I just was curious. thanks appreciate the information
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:46:58
you I think that's it thank you again for an excellent report Ruthorough can tell which I appreciate I know you
put a lot of time and effort in that so thank you very much and
Secretary mannel here your quick report about the lifehoss assisted living waiver
Speaker 26
1:47:17
thank you exhibit C1 and C2 are the monthly updates to the assisted living rate there is no when this letter was submitted there was no change and from one month to the next and no reported closures I am happy to report a subsequent event in the accounting term we will, we have concluded the rate study it will be going up on the website for ir0 dayy comment it has 2 to 3 different rate
rate studies or rate numbers there we will be recommending a flat rate so no change. any questions? all
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:48:00
right thank you so much for reporting again thank you for your Donald's long meeting
thank you so much for your time we appreciate it all right colleagues we need to take 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 get a second get a second all those in favor? any opposed all right thank you very much we'll move forward
with that report and colleagues, I thank you for your time. I just know that your input is greatly needed on this 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 hursday thank you we are having a meeting on Thursday and we'll be discussing the clips and I'm
let Senator English talk about who we have coming on Thursday so you guys will know on our Thursday meeting. we
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:48:50
have a gentleman from the Atlanta Federal Reserve
who's going to come and talk to us on Thursday about the benefit clips cliffs and Alice that are very important things as we're looking at our social program and workforce development reforms see on Thursday with that we adjourn thank you very much
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
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
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
Speaker 215
Speaker 211