SNAP SNAFU
You’ve probably seen reporting on the fiasco with processing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called food stamps) renewals. Alaskans are starving and food banks are overrun because the state isn’t able to get the work done timely.
What caused this? The problems date back to a 2018 Ombudsman's report, and they're mostly about understaffing and elderly computer systems. They got briefly better but by 2019 a new governor started cutting staff. During the pandemic, the feds kept more people on benefits without paperwork, and as renewals ramped back up, all the problems compounded at once.
But there were no surprises. The Division of Public Assistance, which process these applications, has been behind the ball for years. The department put essential tech upgrades on the back burner and didn't recruit nearly enough employees to do the work. As delays got longer, hungry people sometimes got desperate, or angry with workers, and the combination of tears and shouting led a lot of workers to go elsewhere.
The computer upgrades the department repeatedly told the legislature would solve the problem turned out to be years away on their internal IT work lists. And when I met with folks in the then-commissioner's office about the snowballing problems, little or nothing got done.
Where are we now? There are signs of improvement on processing SNAP applications. They’ve hired some more people and have a dedicated team working on the backlog. They’re also experimenting with some automatic renewals for people whose information they can get electronically. And they've moved the computer system upgrade from the mid-20s on the department's IT priority list to #1.
(Those things will make a much bigger difference than the recently-ballyhooed step of diverting some Fish & Game funds to put $1.6 million worth of food on food bank shelves. Don't get me wrong—food helps. But that's what a few days worth of food stamps buys statewide.)
What comes next? Medicaid renewals. It turns out SNAP renewals are just the start of this process. Every single Alaskan who gets Medicaid has to have their eligibility renewed starting in April. And we’re not ready. The Division’s ramp-up plan just doesn’t look adequate to meet the coming need. They have more than 50 vacant positions, but as of yesterday they’re advertising to hire three eligibility technicians. It takes two years to fully train an eligibility tech.
The department also let a contract to send some of the call center work to an Outside company. The notion is that they'll put all the state workers on processing applications. But they’re violating the state's contract with workers by shipping their jobs out of state without so much as a feasibility study. When April's Medicaid renewals start to spin up, DPA will need at least three people's annual output per month. Just for Medicaid. And there's no reason to think they won't still need all hands on deck for the SNAP benefits backlog at the same time.
What can we do? The Legislature can hold oversight hearings and ask questions. We have. But we don’t run Executive branch agencies. We do give them money, though. As Sen. Stedman reminded the newly appointed Health commissioner in committee this week: we can only do that when they tell us what they actually need.
Last year the department kept insisting the computer system was almost ready so they didn’t need more people. Now we know better. This year the department needs to come all the way clean so the legislature can make sure we don’t have this kind of systemwide failure again.
