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STATE DEPARTMENT
OF SOCIAL FINAL
REHABILITATION SERVICES December
2, 2002
Integrated Services Delivery
Docking State Office Building
Room 681 - West
Topeka, Kansas 66612
TO: Area
Directors
Economic and Employment
Support Chiefs
Economic and Employment
Support Staff
Social Service Chiefs
Other Staff
Re: Summary
of Changes for Kansas Economic and Employment
Support Manual (KEESM)
Revision No. 12 effective January 1, 2003.
PURPOSE, BACKGROUND
AND REASON FOR CHANGE
Food Stamp
Program: This revision implements a major change to food stamp
policy regarding categorical eligibility. Food Stamp Program regulations
published on November 21, 2000 mandated a change to food stamp categorical
eligibility policy. The new policy does not allow States to impart
categorical eligibility to an entire food stamp household when only
one member is receiving TANF cash assistance. If the household is
receiving TANF cash, then all members must be receiving the cash assistance
for the household to be considered categorically eligible. The prior
policy, which conferred categorical eligibility by assuming that if
one member receives TANF cash or TANF funded support services the
whole house benefits, no longer applies. For ease of administration,
the policy has been written to state that if all members receive TANF
(or GA or SSI) cash, or if all adult members of the household are
authorized to receive TANF funded support services, then the household
will be considered categorically eligible.
This revision
also contains changes to the ABAWD section because a new 36 month
eligibility period starts January 1, 2003 and ends December 31, 2005.
The examples have been updated with relevant dates. In addition, the
item that describes the ABAWD exemption for persons responsible for
care of a dependent child household member has been modified for clarification
purposes. In addition, a clarification is added that in households
consisting of a pregnant woman and the father of the unborn, that
the father of the unborn is also exempt from the ABAWD provisions.
Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families (TAF) Program: This revision implements a change
in Kansas law (K.S.A. 2001 Supp. 23-101) regarding common-law marriages.
Effective July 1, 2002, both parties must be at least 18 years of
age to enter into a common-law marriage.
In an effort to
more fully support agency goals of helping adults reach self-sufficiency
and reintegrating foster children with their families, the temporary
absence policy has been expanded from 90 to 180 days for both children
and caretakers. Currently, if a child is expected to be out of the
home in a foster care setting, for example, for more than 90 days,
the child is no longer eligible for cash assistance. If that is the
only child in the household, the caretaker loses eligibility for cash,
medical, and employment assistance. This makes it very difficult to
reintegrate the foster child with the caretaker because the caretaker
has been unable to maintain a residence. Visits home even become problematic.
By expanding the temporary absence provision to 180 days, the agency's
goal of reintegrating the child with the family will be better served.
A 180 day temporary absence is the maximum allowed for a child by
federal law. This revision also provides for an adult to be absent
for an indefinite period of time if the absence is required for employment
or to meet a work program requirement, such as attending substance
abuse treatment. The temporary absence section has also been revised
to clarify that in cases of hospitalization, applicants or recipients
must be expected to return home at the end of two months following
the month of admission.
Clarifications
included as a result of staff questions and input include modifications
to the sanction provisions for teen parents, the independent living
assistance planning section regarding hospital stays, and the application
processing provisions in regards to assessing eligibility for each
month of the application period separately.
Medical Programs:
Based on a 51% increase in the consumer price index from September
1988 to September 2002, the community spouse income and resource allowance
standards under the spousal impoverishment provisions will be increased
effective January 1, 2003. The minimum and maximum resource allowance
will increase to $18,132 and $90,660 respectively. The maximum income
allowance will be increased to $2267/month. The minimum income allowance
is unaffected by the consumer price index. The increases are required
by federal law.
The Partial LMB
program is eliminated with this revision. When this program was created
through the Balanced Budget Amendment of 1997, it was authorized for
a period of 5 years. That period expires on 12-31-02. The program
is funded entirely through federal dollars.
Estate Recovery
claims will no longer be applicable for recipients of only QMB, LMB
or QWD coverage beginning 01-01-03. Claims continue to be applicable
for persons who concurrently or subsequently receive full Medicaid
coverage in addition to benefits under these programs.
CHANGES AND REQUIRED
ACTIONS
- KEESM 1411
- Application Process - A new paragraph has been added to this
section to clarify that at the time of application processing, each
month is to be viewed separately in determining eligibility. For
example, if an application is filed in July and processed in August,
ineligibility in August shall not effect July's eligibility. This
provision was inadvertently omitted in the conversion to the combined
KEESM.
- KEESM 1411.1
- How to Apply - This section has been revised to clarify that
clients can only request additional assistance in the month of application
or the following month if the original application completed was
the comprehensive application, the ES-3100. If the food stamp only
application (ES-3100.6) is completed and additional programs are
requested, the ES-3100 must then be completed to determine eligibility
for the additional program(s).
- KEESM 1411.2
- Application Date - A sentence added to this section in the
October manual revision has been modified to clean up some wording.
The sentence added for October indicated that an application filed
at the "wrong county office" must be mailed to the appropriate
office on the same day, or forwarded the next day by any means to
insure the application arrives the day it is forwarded (such as
FAX). For the January revision, the wording "wrong county"
office has been removed and replaced with " the county office
that will not be responsible for processing the application".
The instruction now reads that an application filed at an office
that will not be responsible for processing the application must
be mailed to the appropriate office on the same day, or forwarded
the next day by any means to insure the application arrives the
day it is forwarded (such as FAX).
- KEESM 1724
- Social Security Disability Advocacy Project - Minor wording
changes have been made in this section to clarify the project.
- KEESM 1725
- Estate Recovery Program - This section has been modified to
eliminate the establishment of Estate Recovery claims for recipients
of only QMB, LMB and QWD coverage. This change is only applicable
to those persons who only choose to receive coverage under these
programs in their lifetime. If the individual gains full Medicaid
coverage and is otherwise subject to Estate Recovery, the entire
amount of medical assistance, including services and Medicare premiums
paid while receiving QMB, LMB or QWD only coverage, are subject
to recovery. Claims will not be established for those persons who
only receive QMB, LMB or QWD. This change is applicable to all claims
established on or after January 1, 2003.
- KEESM 1725.4
- Voidable Transfers - Item (1) of this section has been modified
to eliminate transfers by recipients of only QMB, LMB or QWD coverage
as potentially voidable transfers. Because Estate Recovery is no
longer applicable to these beneficiaries, any transfer is also not
subject to voidability.
- KEESM 2150
- Residence - This section has been revised to remove the prior
food stamp requirement that households must be living in the county
in which they file an application for benefits. This change has
been made to increase flexibility as the agency moves forward with
service delivery redesign and office closures.
- KEESM 2220
- Living With A Caretaker - The last paragraph in this section
has been deleted. It is now part of new section 2223 identified
below.
- KEESM 2223
- Temporary Absence of a Child or Caretaker - This new section
has been added to allow a child or caretaker who is expected to
be absent for 180 consecutive days or less to remain a part of the
household and receive assistance, if otherwise eligible. Additionally,
a caretaker who is out of the home for employment or to fulfill
a work participation requirement shall remain a part of the household
regardless of the length of time away. A child away for school or
Job Corps shall also remain eligible regardless of the length of
the absence. The determining factor in approving continued eligibility
due to a temporary absence shall continue to be the caretaker's
responsibility for the care and control of the child or children.
An exception to this policy is absence due to hospitalization. For
applicants and recipients, assistance may be approved and/or continued
only if the hospital stay is expected not to exceed the month of
admission and two following months.
- KEESM 2230
- Teen Parent Under Age 18 - This section has been clarified
to state that a teen parent may also attend an alternative educational
or training program approved by the State to meet the requirement
of attendance in school. It has also been modified to clarify that
when a teen parent under 18 fails to meet the school attendance
requirement, only the teen becomes ineligible for assistance if
the teen is unable to act in own behalf (treated as a child on the
case). If a teen parent under 18 who is able to act in own behalf
and is considered an adult for eligibility purposes fails to meet
the school requirement, the entire mandatory filing unit becomes
ineligible.
- KEESM 2510
- Categorically Eligible Households - This section has been
modified due to a change in Federal regulations. Effective with
this revision, households are considered categorically eligible
only if all members of the household receive or are authorized to
receive TAF (or GA or SSI) cash assistance, or if all adult members
receive or are authorized to receive TAF funded work support services.
Previously, categorical eligibility could be extended to households
in which some members received TAF (or GA or SSI) cash, or TAF funded
support services, as the State had taken the option to assume that
if one member receives a benefit, the whole household benefits.
After Federal Food Stamp Program Regulations were published on 11/21/00,
the option was changed to state that the extension of categorical
eligibility (assuming if one member receives, the whole household
benefits) did NOT apply to households receiving TAF cash assistance.
With the new policy, when a household is receiving TAF (or GA or
SSI) cash assistance, all members must be receiving cash assistance
for the household to be considered categorically eligible. To make
the policy easier for staff to administer, the policies for households
receiving TAF funded support services were modified to be consistent
with the policies for households receiving TAF cash assistance.
More information about the implementation of this change will be
provided in the Implementation Memo.
- KEESM 2520
- Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD) - This section
has been modified and updated to provide that the next 36 month
ABAWD eligibility period is January 2003 through December 2005.
In addition, the examples used in the body of this section have
been updated with current dates.
- KEESM 2521
- Persons Exempt from the ABAWD Provision - Item (3) of this
section, which describes the exemption for persons responsible for
the care of a dependent child household member, has been rewritten
for clarification purposes. Item (4) has been modified to provide
that if the father is in the home with the pregnant woman, he is
also exempt from the ABAWD criteria.
- KEESM 2530
- Households Containing Post-High School Students - A cross
reference in the NOTE in item (1)(b) has been corrected.
- KEESM 2673
- Partial LMB - This section has been removed to eliminate Partial
LMB as a Medicaid coverage group. This group was established by
federal legislation for a five-year period, which expires on December
31, 2002. Benefits under this program will end on that date unless
the program is renewed through congressional action. Additional
instruction regarding the elimination of this program will be issued
separately in an Implementation Memo.
- KEESM 2912.1
- Referral Programs (HIPPS) - This section has been modified
to reflect that a HIPPS referral is required for all persons enrolled
in Working Healthy and all HCBS waiver recipients with an employed
family member.
- KEESM 2912.3
- Payment Process - This section has been revised to reflect
a technical correction in a cross reference.
- KEESM 3414.2 - Post Employment
Services - This section has been revised to reincorporate text
in item 1(n) which was inadvertently removed.
- KEESM 3420 and Subsections
- Support Services/Component Costs/Employment Services Specific
to Food Stamp Only Work Program Participation - Subsections
3422 and 3423 have been re-added to this section as they were inadvertently
removed in prior revisions.
- KEESM 3511.1
- Effect on Cash and Food Stamp Eligibility for Non-Recipients -
This section has been modified to clarify that for cash assistance
purposes, when a minor parent is unable to act in own behalf (considered
a child on the case) and fails to meet a work requirement, only
the minor parent is subject to sanction.
- KEESM 3511.2
- Effect on Cash and Food Stamp Eligibility for Recipients - This
change clarifies that when a minor parent who is able to act in
own behalf (considered as an adult for assistance purposes) and
is considered as an adult for assistance purposes fails to meet
a work-related requirement, the entire mandatory filing unit becomes
ineligible for cash assistance.
- KEESM 4113(2)
- Cash Excluded Members - In Item (2), references to other sections
of the KEESM applicable to work-related sanctions of teen parents
were added for clarity.
- KEESM 4120(3)
- Additional Provisions of Cash Assistance Planning -This section
has been clarified regarding the definition of legal capacity to
enter into a marriage.
- KEESM 4130
- Independent Living Assistance Planning - Some technical changes
have been made to clarify that hospitalized cash assistance recipients
can continue to qualify for assistance if medical care is not expected
to exceed the two calendar months following the month of admission.
- KEESM 4312(2)
- Additional Assistance Planning Provisions - In this section,
the definition of legal capacity to enter into a marriage has been
clarified.
- KEESM 6313
- Self-Employment - Item (4) of this section has been modified
to clarify that when determining allowable costs of doing business
for a roomer, either the 25% standard as described in 7132.1, or
actual expenses as appropriate, can be used to determine countable
income.
- KEESM 7100
- Budgeting of Income - The last paragraph of this item has
been modified to include a cross reference to 2552(2) regarding
counting TAF payments on a food stamp case following a first time
penalty.
- KEESM 7227.5
- Billed Medical Expenses - Item (7), One-Time Expenses, has
been modified to clarify that households have the option to allow
a one time deduction or to have the expense averaged over the remainder
of the review period, however, staff should explain to the household
which method is most beneficial and to encourage the household to
make this choice.
- KEESM 8144
and 8244 - Spousal Impoverishment
Resource and Income Standards - Effective January 1, 2003, the
minimum community spouse resource allowance will increase from $17,856
to $18,132 and the maximum resource allowance will increase from
$89,280 to $90,660. The Resource Assessment and Allowance Determination
forms are being modified to reflect the increased standards. Informational
brochures will be modified in the future to reflect the changes.
Until new supplies of these materials are available, existing supplies
may be used if properly modified.
In addition,
the maximum community spouse income allowance is increasing from
$2232 to $2267 per month. Neither the minimum allowance nor the
dependent family member allowance are changing. Current income
allowance cases will need to be reviewed during December and necessary
adjustments made in the amount effective January 1, 2003.
Separate
instructions will be issued regarding implementation of these
new standards.
- KEESM 12150
- Definitions - Item (5) of the definition of "Abuse"
has had a typographical error corrected.
- KEESM 12200 - Intake Process -
This section has been revised to reflect that there are now two
exceptions to investigating deaths of individuals.
- KEESM 12320
- SRS Licensed Facility Investigations - Additional examples
of SRS licensed facilities have been included.
- KEESM 12330
- Joint Investigations - A wording change from "Community
Service Provider (CSP)" "facility" has been made
for clarification.
- KEESM 12350
- Death of Alleged Victim Before Being Interviewed - Item 3
of this section has a typographical error corrected.
- KEESM 12420
- Unconfirmed or Unconfirmed-Potential Risk Finding and Case Decisions
- In Item 4 of this section, "CDDO/Affiliate" has
been removed. This deletion results in the name of the alleged perpetrator
not being released to any facility licensed by SRS, not just the
CDDO's.
- KEESM 12430
- Confirmed Findings and Case Decisions - The third introductory
paragraph of this section has been amended to instruct APS staff
to use a standardized form letter, ES-1020, when notifying state
regulatory authorities that a provider has been confirmed of abuse,
neglect or exploitation. Item 2 of this section has also been revised
to require that only confirmed findings will be mailed by both certified
mail (return receipt requested) and regular mail on the same day.
In Item 3 of this section, "CDDO/Affiliate" has been removed
and "facility" has been inserted.
- KEESM 12443
- ES-1009 Report (Notice of Termination of Action) - This section
has been revised to require corrective action plans to be mailed
by both certified and regular mail on the same day.
- KEESM 12523
- Expungement of Central Registry Records - This section now
includes a detailed description of the procedure for expungement
by a confirmed perpetrator after three years.
- KEESM 13230 - Proof of Information
Requirement - Item 2 of this section has been connected to reflect
that verification of interest income of less that $50 per month
is not required. Previously this section erroneously stated that
interest of greater than $50 per month need not be verified.
- KEESM 13362 - Income Guidelines
- This section has been revised to reflect the 2002 federal
poverty standards to be used in the 2003 program. Implementation
instructions will be issued separately.
FORMS
- The ES-1004 (Rev. 01-03)
- Adult Abuse, Neglect or Exploitation Investigation Report - has
been revised regarding Date of Initial Visit to require only Not
Late and Late indicators along with a space to indicate reasons
why the visit was late.
- The ES-1006
(Rev. 01-03) - Monthly Report for ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES - has
been revised to add a new category to capture information about
service plans.
- The ES-1020
(1-03) - Report to State Regulatory Authority From APS Regarding
Finding of Abuse, Neglect or Exploitation - has been created
to provide a standard format for areas to report confirmed findings
to state regulatory authorities when a provider has been involved.
- The ES-3104.5
(Rev. 01-03) - Determination of Need (Medical Assistance) - has
been revised to remove reference to Partial LMB Standards.
- The ES-3104.6
(Rev. 01-03) - Determination Worksheet for Pickle Eligibles
and Other Protected Medical Groups - has been revised to include
the new SSI Benefit Levels as well as incorporates the new COLA
Ratio for 2002. This is a locally duplicated form and any existing
supplies of previous editions are to be destroyed.
- The ES-3162
(Rev. 01-03) - Resource Assessment and Allowance Determination Form
- has been changed to reflect the new spousal impoverishment
standards.
- The ES-3163
(Rev 01-03) - Income Allowance Determination Form - has also
been changed to reflect the new spousal impoverishment standards.
- The ES-3820
(Rev. 1-03) - Notice of Eligibility Review - has been updated
to reference the child care program and incorporate KEESM references.
MISCELLANEOUS
FORMS
This section has
been revised to incorporate a new version (9/02) of the MS-2504,
Healthy Insurance Premium Payment Information Form. An initial
supply will be distributed to the Area Offices. Previous versions
of this form are obsolete and to be discarded.
APPENDIX
- Item
55 - Medicaid and HealthWave Standards - has been revised
to remove reference to Partial LMB Standards.
- Item
87 - Statement of Common-Law Marriage - The Statement of
Common-Law Marriage has been revised to reflect a change to K.S.A.
2001 Supp. 23-101 regarding the age at which a person has the legal
capacity to enter into a common-law marriage. As a result of the
amended law, to have the legal capacity to enter into a common-law
marriage before July 1, 2002, the wife must have been at least 12
years old and the husband must have been at least 14 years old.
These ages will continue to be recognized for all common-law marriages
entered into prior to July 1, 2002. For common-law marriages occurring
on or after July 1, 2002, both parties must be at least 18 years
of age to have the legal capacity to enter into a marriage. The
Statement of Common-Law Marriage now allows a couple to stipulate
which criterion applies to them.
EFFECT ON LOCAL
STAFF
The changes regarding the new spousal impoverishment standards will
have a minor administrative effect on staff. Changes to the maximum
spousal income allowance will, however, require that staff review
a number of cases during the month of December and adjust current
allowances as necessary. The elimination of the Partial LMB program
will have only a minor impact as persons eligible for this program
had to reapply each January. Applications taken as of January 1 will
now be denied.
The changes in this material regarding food stamp categorical eligibility
will have a moderate impact on staff as the new policy is applied
to applications and reviews for the next twelve months. Other changes
are administrative in nature, or clarifications of policy and should
have not have an impact on staff.
COORDINATION
EFFORTS
The material in
this letter, manual revision and accompanying Implementation Memos
have been coordinated with staff in the Economic and Employment Support
Section, Children and Family Policy Section, Kansas Department on
Aging, Health Care Policy-Community Supports and Services, Medical
Policy, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Office of Public Affairs,
and EES Chiefs.
Sincerely,
Sandra C. Hazlett, Director
Economic and Employment Support
SCH:MW:jmm
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