Bill Text: HI HR73 | 2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requesting The Department Of Human Services To Examine The Occurrence Of Fraud In The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program And Adopt Methods To Eliminate Fraud And Maintain Program Integrity.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-03-29 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Aquino, Oshiro, Say, Thielen excused (4). [HR73 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2017-HR73-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.R. NO. |
73 |
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TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2017 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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HOUSE RESOLUTION
REQUESTING the department of human services to EXAMINE THE OCCURRENCE OF FRAUD IN THE sUPPLEMENTAL nUTRITION aSSISTANCE pROGRAM AND ADOPT METHODS TO ELIMINATE FRAUD AND MAINTAIN PROGRAM INTEGRITY.
WHEREAS, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assists persons with low and no income to purchase food and is funded exclusively by the federal Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS); and
WHEREAS, the benefits of SNAP are distributed by the Department of Human Services (DHS) through Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards that are issued to authorized persons to redeem the SNAP benefit; and
WHEREAS, in fiscal year 2015, Hawaii's SNAP program had 188,895 individual participants, 95,545 household participants, and expended $505 million of federal funds (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program State Activity Report FY 2015); and
WHEREAS, persons authorized to use the EBT card include certified members and authorized representatives of the household, and any individual who is permitted to purchase food on behalf of the household; and
WHEREAS, the use of the EBT card is secured by a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and the EBT card user cannot be required to produce any other forms of identification; and
WHEREAS, imprinting the authorized person's photograph on the EBT card is permitted, but the photograph will not prevent fraudulent transactions by unauthorized persons and complicit retailers; and
WHEREAS, when the cost estimates of operating a photo EBT policy are weighed against the limited expectation of altering the behavior of would-be traffickers, the conclusion suggests that photo EBT cards are not a cost-effective approach to deter fraud; and
WHEREAS, DHS performed no pre-certification investigations and performed 1,063 post-certification investigations that yielded $693,642 in fraudulent redemptions, which is equivalent to 0.04 percent of the total statewide expenditures; and
WHEREAS, the experience nationwide with fraud investigations resulted in pre-certification investigations detecting 60 percent of fraudulent transactions and post-certification investigation detecting the remaining 40 percent for a total of $432 million in curtailed fraudulent redemptions, which is equivalent to 0.62 percent of the total expenditures; and
WHEREAS, Hawaii's fraud detection rate of 0.04 percent is significantly lower than the nationwide rate of 0.62 percent; and
WHEREAS, the State's external auditor's review for fiscal year 2015 of 60 SNAP case files revealed multiple variances from acceptable procedure according to DHS Financial Statements June 30, 2015; and
WHEREAS, the Urban Institute's study, Assessing the Merits of Photo EBT Cards in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, March 2015, identified potential avenues to curtail fraud, including intensive electronic surveillance by FNS's ALERT system of patterns of retailer transactions and redemptions and recipient trafficking behavior; and
WHEREAS, other prevention strategies include, to the extent permitted by law:
(1) Mandating beneficiaries to contact the State when requesting replacement cards;
(2) Mandating the use of photographic identification on EBT cards;
(3) Adopting best practices in quality control to maintain program integrity through the use of data validated by USDA in case files to determine accurate levels of benefits;
(4) Establishing a process for precertification fraud detection;
(5) Mandating the recruitment of the public to participate in curtailing fraud by distributing the Fraud and Abuse poster published by USDA and by providing the capability to the public to report abuse to the State by electronic means including email and internet website; and
(6) Utilizing data from FNS's ALERT system to identify client households for suspected trafficking violations, including the frequent replacement of EBT cards; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2017, that the Department of Human Services is requested to examine the occurrence of fraud in SNAP and adopt methods to eliminate fraud and maintain program integrity; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Human Services consider:
(1) The adherence of current Hawaii SNAP procedures and administrative rules to the fraud prevention initiatives of SNAP; and
(2) The Department's efforts to estimate fraud and the efficacy of the enforcement proceedings at pre- and post-certification stages; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Human Services is requested to provide metrics on the efficacy of the fraud prevention program, including a cost-benefit analysis to implement the program; provided that the cost-benefit analysis should consider each program initiative independently to facilitate a determination of the best combination of initiatives for fighting fraud and maintaining program integrity; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Human Services submit a report of its findings and recommendations, with proposed legislation if necessary, to the Legislature no later than 20 days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2018; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and Director of Human Services.
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OFFERED BY: |
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Requiring the Department of Human Services to Report to the Legislature on the Occurrence of Fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Adopt Methods to Eliminate Fraud and Maintain Program Integrity.
