Finding Number: 2023-001
Finding Title: Eligibility
Program: 93.778 Medical Assistance Program
Name of Contact Person Responsible for Corrective Action:
John Stepien, Financial Assistance Supervisor
Corrective Action Planned:
• Staff will periodically check cases for citizenship. Citizenship verification is supposed to be an automatic process within MAXIS as an interface update with the Social Security Administration. Workers have come to rely on this automatic process, so reminders to staff to check that this process has actually happened, as well as checking cases periodically, will hopefully resolve this error from reoccurring in the future.
• Vehicles are now considered a disregarded asset that is unlikely to increase in value. According to the most recent policy change, these vehicle assets no longer need to be reverified or updated within MAXIS as long as the reported asset has already been verified and entered in MAXIS. Review of this policy will be brought up during regular unit meetings and staff will be reminded that any information reported on an application or renewal needs to be compared to the information recorded in MAXIS and conflicting information needs to be verified. This would specifically include any new vehicles that were purchased, or any vehicles sold during the certification period.
Income verifications are usually the primary focus when determining new eligibility, however this data is still subject to data entry error. Special attention to this in particular will be highlighted during regular unit meetings. Training on how to review, and calculate income on paystubs will be provided to eligibility staff as well as creating detailed case notes as to how the income was figured and the method used for calculating that income. This will hopefully resolve this error from reoccurring in the future.
Anticipated Completion Date:
These actions will begin August 5, 2024, during the regularly scheduled in person unit meeting. Unit meetings are held two times per month, once in person, and once virtually. Health Care is a standing agenda topic and adding these audit findings to the next meeting will be the start of our corrective action. This action will be an ongoing effort to eliminate errors in our cases.