Cumberland County Social Services Board gets update on NC FAST system

Feb. 26--Though Social Services workers across the state won a battle against backlogged benefit claims this month, the war is far from won.

More deadlines are looming and the volume and types of benefit cases being processed through the beleaguered NC FAST system is growing.

Management at the Cumberland County Social Services worry the resulting workload will make staff quit and that the delays could see Medicaid recipients miss out on essential care.

"We are behind the eight ball," Director Brenda Jackson told the county Social Services Board Wednesday. "These are just trying times."

The N.C. Families Accessing Services through Technology system was first used to handle the renewal of food stamp cases, for which individual eligibility must be re-certified every six months. Glitches in the system and a higher volume of cases because of the recession slowed the processing of cases and prompted a huge statewide backlog.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened to cut off funding needed to run the food stamp program if the backlog wasn't cleared by Feb. 10. State and county employees worked evenings and weekends to catch up, clearing 1,756 cases in Cumberland County alone in the weeks before the deadline.

Now the USDA is requiring that all applications filed by on time -- by March 15 -- be processed by March 31, along with all cases from previous months that were filed late.

Workers are on target to meet that deadline, the board was told. But they also must process all Work First Family Assistance program applications through NC FAST, as well as re-certify up to 4,400 Medicaid cases using the new system in the next three months.

New eligibility criteria for Medicaid that took effect Jan. 1 are written into NC FAST and aren't in the old system, forcing the use of NC FAST for those cases.

The state extended the deadline for 2,500 cases in the county from December to March. But they come due just as another 1,900 cases due by March must also be handled.

"We've got double workloads for March, April and May," Jackson said. "We now have to do those three months plus the regular work that will come due."

The state trained local employees on the Medicaid processing only this week

"This isn't only a workload issue, there's a learning curve too," she said.

In addition, the several on-site state support workers who have been helping with backlogs have been recalled to Raleigh to screen applications for the state's federal health insurance marketplace set up under the affordable Care Act.

"We are continuing to bring our concerns to the Department of Health and Human Services," Jackson said.

When food stamp cases were delayed, citizens were referred to food banks and churches. But the same can't be done for Medicaid patients.

"We cannot fill that gap," Jackson said. "You're looking at the inability to get prescriptions, the inability to get prior approval to have medical procedures done."

Jackson said DSS has a plan to get all the work done.

"We feel good about that plan," she said, "but anything could upset that apple cart and throw this plan off track very, very easily. It's still a long road head of us."

Ultimately, NC FAST will be used to process applications for most benefit programs, which officials say will streamline the process by allowing clients to deal with one case worker, rather than one for each service.

Sometime between July and October, counties will be required to handle work from all benefit programs in NC FAST, and convert any remaining cases into it.

Managers are worried they'll lose employees to burnout.

"Our staff are just really tired at this point," said Heather Skeens, the agency's deputy director. "Knowing that this is going to continue for potentially two years is a little overwhelming and exhausting for them. We anticipate some turnover."

Staff writer Gregory Phillips can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3596.

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