Service Delivery Area: Benefits
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Data Streamlining Medicaid Renewals Through the Ex Parte Process
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should provide detailed guidance and oversight to help states improve automatic Medicaid renewals using available data, through the ex parte process.
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Policy Working Together – A Roadmap to Human Services System Alignment for Young Families
APHSA established a working group to identify strengths, barriers, and opportunities for better system alignment in human services for young parents and children, leading to the development of a roadmap to support meaningful systems-level changes.
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Policy Executive Summary: SNAP Waivers and Adaptations During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Survey of State Agency Perspectives in 2020
SNAP Waivers and Adaptations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey of State Agency Perspectives in 2020 is a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Health and Social Policy (IHSP) based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). This research seeks to understand perspectives from state SNAP administrators on the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from waivers and flexibilities used to preserve equitable access to SNAP during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on state agency survey responses, this report summarizes key findings from the first calendar year of pandemic response and provides policy considerations for the future of SNAP. This research was supported by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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Policy Toolkit for Supporting Young Families Through Human Services
This toolkit provides links to a multitude of resources to help health and human services leaders evaluate and intentionally design programs to meet the unique needs of young families.
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Human-Centered Design Designing Better Programs for Young Parents & Families
This report highlights lessons learned from improving economic stability and well-being outcomes for young parent families, focusing on interagency collaboration, community engagement, data-driven improvement, and aligned services to guide future efforts.
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Policy Documenting Pandemic EBT for the 2020-21 School Year
The Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program was launched as an effort to address the loss of access to free and reduced-price school meals due to widespread school closures at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools reopened in a shifting mix of fully virtual, hybrid, and inperson formats and families lacked consistent access to school meals, these benefits were extended through the 2020–21 school year and were highly valuable to families in buffering the full extent of food insecurity they may have faced during this uncertain time. However, the complexity of administering this program was a fundamental barrier in providing timely support to families, who ultimately went without benefits for at least half of the school year. In this report, we dive into the challenges state administrators faced in launching this new program during the 2020–21 school year and reflect on considerations for the future.
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Communications States Can Use Text Messaging to Communicate Effectively With Medicaid and SNAP Enrollees
In the vast majority of states where Medicaid, SNAP, and other economic security and health programs are administered at the state level, agencies can and should send text messages to their clients to help eligible people connect to and stay enrolled in these programs.
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Data Harnessing Data and Technology to Construct a Human Services System that Supports Thriving and Equitable Communities
Recent innovations in technology have opened a path for H/HS agencies to dramatically strengthen their data and technology infrastructure while providing fairer and more equal access to crucial benefits and services. By taking the concrete policy steps outlined in this brief, we believe that Congress and the administration can help human services agencies accelerate the construction of next generation systems that support the move toward a data-driven, equitable, multidisciplinary service delivery model.
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Data CSNS Kansas: Forming Connections Between SNAP and WIC to Tackle Food Insecurity
Together, the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) and Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) are working to design and build a sustainable process to improve cross-enrollment for families eligible for both the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). This report outlines how Kansas will integrate data matches between SNAP and WIC—as well as targeted outreach— within the ongoing business processes of the agencies to help streamline the experience of accessing nutrition supports for clients. These functions will contribute to the agencies’ shared goal of reducing rates of food insecurity in Kansas.
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Policy Funding Programs for Young Parents & Families
This brief provides a summary of potential federal funding sources and programs that can be used to support programs specifically targeted towards young families. While this list is not exhaustive, it highlights major sources that can serve as a starting point for braiding and blending of funding to create comprehensive programming to serve young families.
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Data CSNS New Jersey: Sharing Nutrition Program Data to Raise WIC Enrollment
This report outlines how the New Jersey Department of Human Services’ Division of Family Development (DFD) and the Department of Health (NJDOH) are increasing SNAP & WIC co-enrollment through data sharing, outreach, and systems integration.
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Data CSNS Hawaii: Building a Data-Driven Foundation to Help Hunger in Hawai’i
The Hawai‘i Department of Human Services (DHS), in partnership with the Hawai‘i Department of Health (DOH) and the Children’s Healthy Living Center of Excellence (CHL Center) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, is building foundational capacity to share and analyze administrative data across the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). This groundwork will enable Hawai‘i to increase access to nutrition support programs, in alignment with Hawai‘i’s ‘Ohana Nui framework, which aims to dismantle intergenerational poverty.