A project initiated by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services aimed at identifying potential duplicate public assistance participation in seven nearby states has shown initial success.

Staff with the Income Maintenance Division within the SRS Commission on Income Support and Medical Services recently contacted similar divisions in the seven states to determine their willingness to participate in a match of current cash, medical and food stamp recipients. The purpose of the project was to determine if clients are receiving public assistance from more than one state at the same time.

The states of Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas expressed initial interest in the project and an electronic tape containing current Kansas public assistance recipient information was sent to each of the states. Missouri was the first to complete the match and return a tape containing recipient information for individuals who are currently recipients in both states.

Kansas Income Maintenance personnel proceeded with reviews of the matches identified by Missouri officials, with the following results:

Of 365 cases reviewed, a cash and/or food stamp overpayment was discovered on 101 cases or 27 percent. Of these overpayments, 38 were attributed to suspected client fraud, 52 were attributed to client error and 11 were attributed to agency error. The cash overpayments on 36 cases amounted to $80,538. Food Stamp overpayments were discovered on 93 cases, with the approximate dollar value of these overpayments identified at $61,249. Also identified were 541 months of duplicate Medicaid coverage.

Social service officials in Oklahoma also report a similar number of recipients have received cash, medical or food stamp assistance in their state at the same time they were on the roles in Kansas. The information from the Oklahoma files is still being processed, but SRS officials expect overpayments from the Oklahoma match to be of a similar amount to those found in Missouri.

SRS Secretary Donna Whiteman said the agency will be working with the other states to set up a process to catch potential errors in public assistance payments before the payments are made. She noted that the majority of errors discovered through coordination with other states came about because clients failed to notify the state where they were on public assistance roles that they had moved to another state.

Whiteman said SRS would be coordinating with other states to make sure recipients are not added to public assistance roles in Kansas until the agency is sure the potential recipient's case from another state is closed. Meanwhile, income maintenance personnel are working to collect incorrect payments identified through the interstate cooperation.

Although there appears to be some fraud involved, the vast majority of these errors occur because information about public assistance recipients presently is unavailable across state lines," she said. We need to have a system in place so each state can be sure clients being added to public assistance roles do not have an open case in another state.

Robert Epps, SRS Commissioner of Income Support and Medical Services, initiated the cross-state investigation. He said the results so far show it was well worth the effort, but said states now need to coordinate even more closely to create a less cumbersome investigation process.

We feel the overpayments identified in this project are substantial and will be working on methods to make sure duplication of benefits between states can be reduced significantly or eliminated," Epps said.

Presently, when income maintenance workers in Kansas City, Wichita, and Topeka suspect some problem with a potential public assistance applicant, they make a referral to the Early Detection and Prevention Unit (EDP) under the legal division of SRS. The purpose of the EDP program is to investigate suspicious public assistance cases prior to granting eligibility. SRS has requested 10 additional Special Investigators so other areas of the state can have similar early detection assistance.

Investigators with the EDP unit work closely with the income maintenance division to determine whether the information given by the applicant is correct. In state fiscal year 1994, which ended June 30, 1994, the work of the EDP unit saved the state about $650,000 after investigations of referrals from income maintenance workers resulted in 1,223 public assistance cases either denied, closed or reduced.

The program is very successful and we need to be in a position to expand this work," Whiteman said. Funds not spent on improper payments can be used by the agency for other purposes or assistance. This limited project has conclusively demonstrated it is more efficient and economical to prevent overpayments before they are made rather than attempt to recover payments."

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001