The JFS 01659 payment process has been revised to reduce the number of duplicate payments. The major alteration to the payment process is that the FACSIS Benefit Issuance (BI) system is now set up to have only one active payment for each Benefit Type for any given time period of service. If an incorrect monthly payment is made requiring an adjustment, the entire claim must be returned either as an overpayment (Transaction Code 2) or as an underpayment (Transaction Code 3). The correct payment claim amount should be claimed as an "initial" payment (Transaction Code 1).

In order to reduce the number of duplicate payments, two error messages have been added to the Benefits Issuance Error Report:

• Duplicate Payment Found
• No Payment Matches the Overpayment/Underpayment

The following examples detail how to avoid these errors:

EXAMPLE 1: A claim of $450.00 was processed at BI Cut-off. After payment was created, the county changes FACSIS Event 338 to $500.00. To receive the revised amount, complete a JFS 01659 with two lines:

• Line 1: Indicate an overpayment of $450.00.
• Line 2: Indicate an "initial" payment for $500.00.

The overpayment line processes first and brings the balance for the time period to $0.00. Then the initial payment line processes bringing the balance to $500.00. Please note that if a subsequent change is made to the FACSIS Event 338 the same process would be followed; first returning the $500, and then claiming the new amount.

For this example, the common cause of the error message "Duplicate Payment Found" is the following:

• Any request for additional funding for the same service time period (i.e. $50.00 additional payment to equate the total payment with the new FACSIS Event 338 of $500.00).

For this example, the common cause of the error message "No Payment Matches the Overpayment/Underpayment" is the following:

• Any claim of overpayment or underpayment that does not identically match the "initial" claim for the time period (i.e. using an overpayment amount of $264.73 (58.83%) instead of the original claim of $450.00).

EXAMPLE 2: A claim of $450.00 was processed at BI Cut-off. After payment was created, the child is moved to Resource #2 on 7/15/03. Two separate claims, one for Resource #1 of $203.00 and one for Resource #2 of $300.00 is needed. To receive payments for the two different placement resources, the two placements will need to be split and processed as two different service time period payment requests. Complete a JFS 01659 with the following three lines:

• Line 1: Indicate an overpayment of $450.00.
• Line 2: Indicate an "initial" payment for $203.00 for Resource #1 (7/1/2003 - 7/14/2003).
• Line 3: Indicate an "initial" payment for $300.00 for Resource #2 (7/15/2003 - 7/31/2003).

For this example, the common cause of the error message "Duplicate Payment Found" is the following:

• Any request that overlaps a previous service time period (i.e. $218.00 for 7/1/2003 - 7/15/2003 and $300.00 for 7/15/2003 - 7/31/2003).

For this example, the common cause of the error message "No Payment Matches the Overpayment/Underpayment" is the following:

• Any claim of overpayment or underpayment that does not identically match the "initial" claim for the time period (i.e. using an overpayment amount of $232.00 on Resource #1 for the period 7/16/2003 - 7/31/2003 when the original claim was for $450.00 for the period 7/1/20003 - 7/31/2003).

EXAMPLE 3: A claim of $450.00 was processed at BI Cut-off. After payment was created for the 7/1/2003 - 7/31/2003 time period, the child returns home on 7/11/2003. To return payment for the period 7/11/03 - 7/31/03 and receive the partial month's payment for the period 7/1/03 - 7/10/03, complete a JFS 01659 with two lines:

• Line 1: Indicate an overpayment of $450.00.
• Line 2: Indicate an "initial" payment of $145.00 for the portion of time the child was in placement from 7/1/2003 - 7/10/2003.

For this example, the common cause of the error message "No Payment Matches the Overpayment/Underpayment" is the following:

• Any claim of overpayment or underpayment that does not identically match the "initial" claim for the time period (i.e. using an overpayment amount of $305.00 for the period 7/11/03 - 7/31/03 instead of using the original claim amount of $450.00).

Clothing, Graduation and Daycare

Clothing, graduation and daycare claims are now debundled from the FACSIS Event 338 amount. Thus, FACSIS Event 338 amount no longer acts as an upper limit and there is no longer any need to split one of these costs onto separate lines for reimbursement. The only limits that applies to these amounts are the limits set through the annual foster care maintenance survey. Each claim of clothing, graduation, and/or daycare should have its own separate line on the JFS 01659.

Clothing, graduation and daycare claims are each handled separately from the maintenance amounts. Each of these is treated the same as maintenance. An initial claim of clothing for a time-period is handled the same as it always has been.

The following example details how to receive proper reimbursement for clothing, graduation and daycare claims:

EXAMPLE 4: Prior to the debundling of the FACSIS Event 338, a $500.00 claim for clothing was split across two lines on the JFS 01659 to not exceed the amount of FACSIS Event 338 ($450.00 in this illustration) Prior to the debundling of the FACSIS Event 338, the JFS 01659 claim would have shown the following:

• Line 1: Indicated an "initial" clothing payment of $450.00.
• Line 2: Indicated an "initial" clothing payment of $50.00.

* [This method will now result in a "Duplicate Payment Found" error message] *

The new process for completing the JFS 01659 is as follows:

• Line 1: Indicate an "initial" clothing payment of $500.00.

Difficulty of Care Payments

Foster Care Maintenance (FCM) payments that include a Special, Exceptional or Intensive Needs benefit are processed as a combined total of the Maintenance Per Diem and the Difficulty of Care Per Diem from the FACSIS Event 338. These need to be combined when completing the JFS 01659 for an overpayment or underpayment. Any revised difficulty of care claim for the same service period is split between family foster home costs and the specific difficulty of care benefit type under a transaction code of "initial benefit."

The following example details how to receive proper reimbursement for difficulty of care claims:

EXAMPLE 5: A claim of $500.00 ($450.00 Maintenance and $50.00 for Special Needs) was processed at BI Cut-off. After payment was created, the child needs $200.00 for Exceptional Needs. Thus, the combined monthly claim should be for $650.00 ($450.00 for Maintenance and $200.00 for Exceptional Needs). To receive the revised amount, complete a JFS 01659 with the following three lines:

• Line 1: Indicate an overpayment of "Family Foster Home Costs" totaling $500.00 to return the entire month's claim ($450.00 for Maintenance and $50.00 for Special Needs).
• Line 2: Indicate an "initial" payment of "Family Foster Home Costs" for $450.00.
• Line 3: Indicate an "initial" payment of "Exceptional Needs" for $200.00.

For this example, the common cause of the error message "Duplicate Payment Found" is the following:

• Any request that overlaps a previous service time period.

For this example, the common cause of the error message "No Payment Matches the Overpayment/Underpayment" is the following:

• A claim of overpayment or underpayment that does not identically match the "initial" maintenance claim combined with the "initial" Special Needs claim. (i.e. using an overpayment amount of $50.00 for the Special Needs portion only).

Helpful Hint

As a helpful hint please be advised that when BI issues a recurring (cutoff) foster care maintenance (FCM) payment it rounds to the nearest dollar. Therefore, if your FACSIS Event 338 has a value of $333.33, cutoff will issue $333.00, and that is the amount that would be used to return the payment as an overpayment or underpayment. For rounding purposes, $1.00 to $1.49 rounds to $1.00; likewise $1.50 to $1.99 rounds to $2.00.

For questions about this letter, please contact the OCF Helpdesk by phone at 1-866-886-3537, Option 4, or by email at mailto:HELP-DESK-OCF@odjfs.state.oh.us.