Governor Kathy Hochul announced a new client feedback initiative in partnership with Code for America to improve New York's WIC program by implementing live online chat to gather input from participants, streamline enrollment, and increase access to healthy food for eligible families.
This analysis examines the surge in U.S. state-level AI legislation in 2023, highlighting enacted laws, proposed bills, and emerging regulatory trends.
This page describes the agency’s investments in digital tools and services aimed at reducing friction in how people find, apply for, and maintain eligibility for federal benefits.
DSN Spotlights are short-form project profiles that feature exciting work happening across our network of digital government practitioners. Spotlights celebrate our members’ stories, lift up actionable takeaways for other practitioners, and put the resources + examples we host in the Digital Government Hub in context.Â
Differing federal requirements for public benefit applications create significant barriers for applicants and complicate state efforts to integrate services.
Eligible people struggle to maintain their case status for critical safety net services, often due to administrative hurdles and poor communication. Code for America piloted text message reminders to support Louisianans, which helped clients avoid costly churn. Text messages are an underrated, efficient solution for human service agencies to meet client expectations and improve case outcomes.
Programs like Medicaid and SNAP are managed at the federal level, administered at the state level, and often executed at the local level. Because there are so many in-betweens, there is significant duplicated effort, demonstrating the need to simplify eligibility rules to facilitate easier implementation.
It is frequently assumed that when rules are implemented as code, a rules engine is necessary. However, it is possible for policy people and engineers to effectively work together to code logic that drives technological system without needing a mediating rules engine at all.
In this interview, Code for America staff members share how client success, data science, and qualitative research teams work together to consider the responsible deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in responding to clients who seek assistance with three products.
Code for America helped expand GetCalFresh (a service that guides Californians through the SNAP application process and helps government deliver food assistance to people in need) from a small pilot into a statewide service. They also recently concluded a similar pilot in Michigan along with Civilla and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
