Application Backlog Corrective Action Plan

for the

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

as administered by the

Alaska Department of Health and Social Services

Division of Public Assistance

Federal Fiscal Years 2015-2016

Submitted by

Elaine Rich, Chief, Program Integrity and Analysis

Alaska SNAP Application Backlog Corrective Action Plan FFY 2015-2016 Page 2

Purpose of the Application Backlog Corrective Action Plan

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) requires state agencies to provide

eligible households that complete the initial application process an opportunity to participate

within 30 calendar days following the date the application was filed, or no later than the seventh

calendar day following the filing date for households needing expedited service. The Food and

Nutrition Service (FNS) is requiring Alaska to prepare a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) because

of the large number of initial applications and recertifications currently outside the required

processing timeframes. The goals of the CAP are to ensure elimination of the backlog and

development of a plan to improve Alaska’s timeliness rate above the 90% threshold on an

ongoing basis.

Identification of the Root Causes of the Backlog

The Division of Public Assistance (DPA) has faced several challenges that led to the backlog,

but for the sake of brevity only the major ones are included in this plan.

First, DPA developed a new eligibility information system called Alaska’s Resource for

Integrated Eligibility Services (ARIES) to implement the requirements of the Affordable Care

Act. This was a considerable drain on staff resources because our best and brightest employees

were tasked with attending requirements gathering and design sessions, and were required to

participate in training and user acceptance training for ARIES. The delayed go-live of the

system required implementation of a largely manual contingency plan that dramatically

increased the elapsed time for processing Medicaid requests for service. This increased level of

effort adversely impacted processing timeframes for other programs.

Second, once phase 1 of ARIES was implemented, staff began working in two eligibility

systems. Most Medicaid is processed in ARIES and other public assistance programs, including

SNAP, are processed in the legacy system (EIS). This created a backlog as staff adapted to the

new ARIES system.

Strategies to Address the Backlog

DPA has implemented several strategies to improve application processing timeliness for SNAP,

while maintaining payment accuracy. The approaches involve: adequate staffing, specialized

teams, business process management, SNAP focused time, overtime hours and revised

workflow. Each of these strategies is described below:

Adequate Staffing

The Division has a fixed number of personnel able to conduct eligibility determinations.

After June 30, 2015, fiscal challenges will effectively eliminate the non-permanent

positions established to assist with addressing the current workload challenge.

The Division has enlisted almost 60 staff from other sections of the Division as well as

staff form other Division’s in the Department to provide assistance and conduct activities

that enable Eligibility Technicians to focus on processing eligibility determinations.

Alaska SNAP Application Backlog Corrective Action Plan FFY 2015-2016 Page 3

While the provisions of the Affordable Care Act have been implemented, it will be

important for DPA to ensure adequate staffing as it prepares to bring other programs into

ARIES in release 2 in late 2015. Recruiting and filling vacancies as quickly as possible,

and providing the necessary training will be key to DPA processing SNAP applications

within federal timeframes on an ongoing basis.

Specialized Teams

To address the issue of working in two systems, DPA has temporarily implemented

specialized eligibility teams. This allows DPA to take advantage of employees’ strengths

and allows them to work the programs and functions in which they are the most

proficient and avoids having to switch back and forth between systems. For example,

when there is an application for SNAP and Medicaid, one worker will process the SNAP

application in EIS and then hand off the Medicaid application to another worker to

process in ARIES.

Business Process Management

DPA continues to strive to improve process management efforts statewide. DPA has not

reevaluated our processes in quite some time and plans to use a portion of our SNAP

performance bonus funds to contract for a review and assessment of the efficacy of our

existing business processes. It is anticipated that this work will be completed by

September 30, 2016.

SNAP Focused Time

Eligibility staff is given dedicated production time Tuesday through Thursday from 8:00

am to noon. During this time, staff members who are trained in the SNAP program

concentrate on processing SNAP expedite applications and backlog by working the oldest

applications first. Staff prioritizes the cases that need action right away to avoid this

work becoming part of the backlog. This strategy was implemented on May 12, 2015.

Overtime Hours

Between January and March 2015, DPA staff and other colleagues from partner agencies

volunteered over 100,000 hours of overtime. This effort is ongoing and beginning May

11, 2015, these overtime hours have been focused on reducing the backlog of SNAP

applications.

Revised Workflow

DPA has implemented a revised workflow to accelerate the interview process. Support

staff are conducting interviews and handing the completed “packet” to a group of

dedicated Eligibility Technicians who are making the post-interview eligibility

determination. In ten days, one field office was able to complete approximately 900

applications with only 10 interviewers and 4 processors. It should be noted that case

reviews indicate zero to few errors with this workflow. This strategy was implemented

May 13, 2015.

Alaska SNAP Application Backlog Corrective Action Plan FFY 2015-2016 Page 4

Responsible Individuals

Tammera Walker, Acting Chief of Field Services, is responsible for implementing the corrective

action strategies.

Elaine Rich, Chief of Program Integrity and Analysis, is responsible for monitoring the

effectiveness of the corrective action strategies.

Plans for Monitoring Effectiveness of Strategies

DPA has been concerned about the severity of the backlog for quite some time and have spent

several months laying out plans to address the backlog on various fronts. As a result, DPA has

developed weekly workload updates that are shared with our staff statewide and posted on our

website at http://dpaweb.hss.state.ak.us/node?page=1 for FNS to review. We acknowledge that

weekly monitoring is crucial to determining the effectiveness of strategies to address the backlog

and maintain timeliness on an ongoing basis. Starting with the May 11, 2015, weekly workload

update, we included our progress towards meeting the FNS benchmarks. Also, our May 18,

2015, update is attached to this corrective action plan for your review.