March 2013

In This Issue

Director's Letter: HCJFS Proves Adaptability

Wear Blue: Child Abuse is Preventable 

New Kiosk in HCJFS Lobby to Speed Service for Consumers

New Electronic Cards for Families Using Food Assistance

Free Tax Assistance

Adopt 13-year-old William

William loves animals and would like to be a veterinarian one day. He adores dogs and cats and wants a pet of his own.
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It is no secret that in 2008 and 2009, this agency endured some pretty dramatic cuts. The Hamilton County Job and Family Services workforce dropped from 1,600 employees to about 800.

The public demanded we do more with less, and we have known for a long time that is exactly what we have been doing.

But this month, we will celebrate an important anniversary that shows not only our commitment to serving the public but our ability to adapt to the changing times.

As of March 1, we will have met our goal to exceed a 90 percent timeliness rate for public assistance claims for a full year. That means in the last year more than 90 percent of consumers who reapplied for food assistance and more than 96 percent of consumers who applied for the first time received a determination within the required 30 days.

This may seem like an odd cause for celebration to an outsider, but to us, it represents our ability to face a challenge head-on and tackle it. After the dramatic cuts we endured when the economy slowed, making a determination on public assistance claims in a timely manner was one of our biggest challenges.

In part, because at the same time the number of public assistance claims rose dramatically. The number of Medicaid consumers we served in 2012 (178,000) is 40 percent higher than in 2007 (127,000)when we were at full staffing levels. The number of food assistance consumers is even more striking. In 2012 we served 135,000 individuals needing food assistance. That is nearly 90 percent higher than in 2007 when we served 72,000. And unfortunately, the numbers don’t show any sign of slowing.

In other words, we are now serving nearly double the number of food assistance consumers with half the staff in a timely manner.

Of course there is the occasional application that we can’t process in 30 days, but a majority of the applications that are not processed within that time frame are because we have granted extensions to the consumers to allow them more time to deliver verification documents.

In fact, not only were we the first major metropolitan county to pass the 90 percent mark, other counties have begun to ask us for their help.

Our training of Summit County took them from just over 70 percent to more than 90 percent in January. This is the highest they have ever been. In addition, our training of Butler County took them from 37 percent to 81 percent in January.

As you may know, we’ve made important changes that allowed for this success. A stronger use of electronic data, increased communication with staff, face-to-face interviews, and same day case authorization have made big differences.

We’ll also continue to increase our efforts, devising new ways for consumers to interact with us, such as the kiosk that is scheduled to go into the lobby this month. (You can read more about the kiosk in this Update story).

Our efforts to utilize electronic data and analysis of food stamp fraud has also proven overwhelmingly successful. Recent efforts have resulted in a savings of more than $200,000 in fraudulent food stamp benefits.

But the real credit for our success has to go to our staff. Their ability to adapt to changing procedures, and their commitment to serving the residents of Hamilton County is what makes our accomplishments possible.

And this commitment and adaptability will only be more important moving forward. Hamilton County will continue to change and present new obstacles, but we have already proven we are up to the challenge.