By: King of Taylor, Naishtat H.B. No. 2819
(Senate Sponsor - Nelson)
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 16, 2011;
May 16, 2011, read first time and referred to Committee on Health
and Human Services; May 20, 2011, reported favorably by the
following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 20, 2011, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the operation and efficiency of the eligibility
determination process for supplemental nutrition assistance
program benefits.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 33, Human Resources Code, is amended by
designating Sections 33.0005 through 33.028 as Subchapter A and
adding a subchapter heading to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER A. NUTRITIONAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS IN GENERAL
SECTION 2. Chapter 33, Human Resources Code, is amended by
adding Subchapter B to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER B. SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM:
ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION PROCESS EFFICIENCY
Sec. 33.051. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(1) "Commission" means the Health and Human Services
Commission.
(2) "Supplemental nutrition assistance program" means
the nutritional assistance program formerly referred to as the food
stamp program.
Sec. 33.052. APPLICATION ASSISTANCE. (a) The commission
shall develop procedures to ensure that:
(1) clear guidance on program eligibility
requirements is provided to supplemental nutrition assistance
applicants and prospective applicants and mechanisms are
established, including Internet and e-mail mechanisms, as
appropriate, by which applicants can obtain answers to basic
program-related questions; and
(2) information is provided to each applicant in
person, by e-mail, by telephone, or through the mail, as
appropriate, about information the applicant is required to submit
for purposes of the eligibility determination process.
(b) The commission shall consider the feasibility and
cost-effectiveness of using office personnel or an automated system
or systems to support the eligibility determination process by
contacting an applicant in advance of an applicant's scheduled
interview to remind the applicant of the interview and the
documentation that must be presented at the interview.
Sec. 33.053. USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO PROMOTE EFFICIENCY AND
FRAUD DETECTION. (a) The commission shall consider the
feasibility and cost-effectiveness of using readily available
document scanning technology to reduce storage and maintenance
costs and potential loss of data by creating electronic case files
for supplemental nutrition assistance cases instead of maintaining
physical files for those cases. The commission shall use that
technology if determined feasible and cost-effective.
(b) The commission shall implement, if feasible and
cost-effective, a risk scoring program for supplemental nutrition
assistance applications to streamline the eligibility
determination process, reduce errors, and strengthen fraud
detection. A risk scoring program implemented by the commission
must be capable of ranking applications based on complexity so
that:
(1) more experienced eligibility determination staff
members can be used to process more difficult cases and cases with
fraud characteristics; and
(2) applications ranked as low-risk on fraud
characteristics can be processed more expeditiously.
Sec. 33.054. WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT. The commission shall
improve its management of supplemental nutrition assistance
eligibility determination staff by:
(1) establishing clear performance expectations that
can serve as the basis for performance assessments;
(2) planning for anticipated staffing needs;
(3) revising policies regarding overtime and accrual
of compensatory time to ensure that eligibility determination staff
members have access to supervisors as necessary;
(4) assessing the effectiveness of training provided
to new eligibility determination staff members; and
(5) evaluating the compensation of eligibility
determination staff members to determine if the compensation is
sufficient to recruit qualified staff members and retain
experienced staff members.
Sec. 33.055. PROGRAM MANAGEMENT INFORMATION. (a) The
commission, in conjunction with state, regional, and local
eligibility determination offices, shall identify eligibility
determination program performance indicators with respect to which
data should periodically be collected. The commission shall
implement a process for collecting data on the identified
performance indicators.
(b) The commission shall provide periodic management
reports generated by the automated eligibility system to
eligibility determination offices. The reports must include
information regarding the number of pending supplemental nutrition
assistance applications and the number of those applications that
have not been processed within applicable timeliness standards.
(c) The commission shall use data collected under
Subsection (a) and the reports described by Subsection (b) to
develop and assess strategies for:
(1) streamlining the supplemental nutrition
assistance eligibility determination process;
(2) improving timeliness of eligibility
determinations; and
(3) accommodating increases in applications received.
SECTION 3. To the extent available for this purpose, the
Health and Human Services Commission shall use supplemental federal
funding provided for the administration of the supplemental
nutrition assistance program to implement Subchapter B, Chapter 33,
Human Resources Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.
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