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REGION V ETA WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT LETTER NO. 002-04
DATE: February 25, 2004
TO: STATE WORKFORCE AGENCY ADMINISTRATORS
FROM: BYRON ZUIDEMA
Regional Administrator
SUBJECT: State Partners Update – Eligibility Quality Assurance
1. Purpose. This notice is directed to all State Workforce
Agencies (SWA) to outline the end-of-month file transmission procedure for the
month of February. The Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) team is requesting
your support in ensuring that all eligibility files are transmitted in a timely
manner.
2. Background .
The HCTC Program requires states to submit eligibility files as soon as possible;
it is especially important that all files known to be eligible as of the last
day of the month be sent at such time. These records are then used to verify
eligibility for the following month. At the end of September, the HCTC Program
noticed that a significant number of individuals were dropped from SWA eligibility
lists. This prompted the HCTC Program to develop a process to enable our state
partners to review and provide feedback on their file transmissions for the last
three months in 2003 and January 2004. This special eligibility quality assurance
procedure is also going to occur in February.
The purpose of the end-of-month quality assurance exercise is to prevent individuals
from being erroneously terminated from the HCTC program, and possibly losing their
health care coverage. Since the HCTC Program is new, the HCTC Program Office
wants to confirm terminations on a short-term basis until a baseline for normal
termination volume is determined. Many of the HCTC Program participants have
enrolled in qualified health plans they could not have otherwise afforded because
of the 65% credit. If the SWA does not send their name on the file, they in turn
may lose their health coverage.
3. Trade. On February 25, 2004 the HCTC Program will
run an end-of-month eligibility query to identify individuals who are active in
the HCTC Program (in registration process or receiving benefits), but their name
has not yet been transmitted by the SWA for the month of February.
Each state that has individuals losing eligibility will receive an email containing
an encrypted list of names of individuals who will be declared ineligible
for the HCTC Program for the month of February 2004 (if the numbers for a state
are low, the state may be called directly). These states will be expected to
verify that each individual on that list has become ineligible. If an individual
is found still eligible, the state is expected to resubmit that person’s record
with the correct eligibility code. The submission is to be done using standard
ICON file transmission. Detailed instructions (including how to open the encrypted
list) will be provided in the email.
4. Timeline:
February Audit
| Wed. Feb 25, Morning
Wed. Feb 25, Afternoon |
·
HCTC Program runs Eligibility Query
·
Impacted SWAs receive email with encrypted
list (if volume is low, some states may be called) |
| Wed. Feb 25 – Mon. March 1 |
·
SWA researches eligibility of names on list |
| Wed. Feb 25 – Tue. March 2,
5:30 PM EST |
·
SWA transmits by ICON remaining names for February |
| Wed. March 3 |
·
HCTC terminates names no longer listed as eligible |
5. Action: If you receive an email from the HCTC Program on
February 25, please take the appropriate action as soon as possible. If you have
questions on this process, please contact Thomas Mastal, HCTC Operations Support Lead at 703-947-2174, or Jessica
Clark, State Liaison Team at 703-947-3185.
Thank you for your assistance. The HCTC Program appreciates the support and
cooperation received from our state partners.
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