This letter transmits emergency proposed rules to the Administrative Procedure Manual (APM) with an effective date of October 1, 2006. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) will have a concurrent filing of internal management rules which will replace the emergency proposed rules and become effective October 9, 2006. At that time, ODJFS will submit these rules through the clearance process to allow for public comment.

Rules included in this transmittal: 5101:9-32-01, 5101:9-32-03, 5101:9-32-10, 5101:9-10-01, and 5101:9-10-02

Background

Pursuant to 7 CFR 275.23, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) measures states' food stamp error rate using a two year liability system in which state liability amounts shall be established when a state's payment error rate exceeds 105% of the national average error rate for two consecutive years. Ohio's FFY 2004 error rate of 8.43% exceeded 105% of the FFY 2004 national average error rate of 5.88%. Ohio's FFY 2005 error rate of 8.65% also exceeded 105% of the FFY 2005 national average error rate of 5.84%. This second consecutive year of excessive error rates resulted in the establishment of a $3,065,580.00 liability amount for FFY 2005. ODJFS is negotiating with the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to reinvest a portion of this sanction and will be held "at risk" for the remaining portion if our error rate does not improve in FFY 06.

To address concerns of having two different food stamp case review systems: the federal statewide QC review and the Top Error Element Review (TEER) and objections to ODJFS's plan to distribute future Food Stamp payment accuracy rate sanction liability to responsible counties based on TEER results, staff from ODJFS met with a group of county representatives to discuss proposed options for quality control reviews as well as federal sanction and incentive distribution. As a result, a proposal was developed to have a new quality control system. The rules contained in this transmittal outline the new system and the federal sanction and incentive distribution.

ODJFS Implementation

The proposed rules are contained in this APMTL and are detailed below. There will be no changes to these rules that directly affect the eligibility of applicant/recipients or how any county agency will administer programs. The following is a brief description of the changes to each rule.

5101:9-32-01 Food Stamps: quality assessment review process - This is a new rule that describes the quality assessment review process for active food stamp cases, including adherence to case sampling requirements in the Code of Federal Regulations; the reporting of error findings to the CDJFS, and the CDJFS appeal process for those findings. The rule also stipulates that county performance reports will be posted monthly on the Department's innerweb.

5101:9-32-03 Food Stamps: quality assessment findings - This is a new rule that describes the notification process to county departments of job and family services (CDJFS) of quality assessment findings and the process for a CDJFS to dispute the finding.

5101:9-32-10 Food Stamps: federal incentives or sanctions as a result of the quality assessment review - This is a new rule that describes the process by which a federal food stamp incentive payment earned by the state or federal food stamp sanction liability imposed on the state will be distributed to county departments of job and family services.

5101:9-10-01 County department of job and family services (CDJFS) performance measures, standards and goals - The rule is being amended to focus the required continuous improvement plan process on activities related to Food Stamp and Work Participation performance. Specifically, this amendment will remove the standard and goal requirements for the Continuing Medical Benefits rate and the State All-Family Work Participation rate and will add requirements for Food Stamp Payment Accuracy.

The Office of Family Stability will continue to provide Continuing Medical Benefit performance information to all counties to track access to continuing medical assistance for OWF participants leaving OWF cash assistance. Due to changes related to the implementation of the Deficit Reduction Act, data will no longer be provided for a separate State Work Participation rate.

5101:9-10-02 County department of job and family services (CDJFS) continuous improvement plan - This rule is being amended to add policy pertaining to the food stamp payment accuracy performance standard.

Instructions