Teamwork gets results for food stamp managers

Food and Nutrition, Jan, 1986 by Jane Mattern Vachon

Team problem solving is what a new state self-help effort in the Food Stamp Program is all about. Initiated and supported by the Food and Nutrition Service, the effort enables the most talented federal, state, and local food stamp managers to work together in helping food stamp agencies that have high error rates or other problems in managing their programs.

"It's the best example I know of a federal-state partnership," says Virgil Conrad, deputy administrator for family nutrition programs at FNS. "Although it doesn't cost a lot of money, we're harnessing knowledge so that people don't have to re-invent the wheel to do a better job. What better way to help a state than to get people who are executing the job well in another state to become the teachers."

Every region is involved

Each of the seven FNS regional offices has organized a technical assistance team that will provide help where needed. Two of the regions are sharing a team, so there are six in all.

The teams consist of regional, state, and local experts, including state and local prosecutors and investigators, staff from state Inspector General offices, and claims collections specialists. States contribute the time and skills of their people, and FNS contributes funds for travelling as well as overall direction.

Reaction to the teams has been enthusiastic. "Part of the success of the effort," says Conrad, "can be measured in the commitment of the states to put up team members. Here are state people willing not only to improve their own programs, but to help others in managing theirs."

One of the teams' main concerns is helping states cut down on errors made in certifying applicants and in determining recipients' benefit levels. Bringing down high error rates is a priority for many states, since they face potential sanctions from FNS for levels that exceed national limits. The teams are also helping states improve methods for prosecuting fraud and collecting claims for overpayments made to recipients.

"Nationally, we've seen a lot of progress in making the Food Stamp Program more accountable," says Conrad. "National error rates are coming down. There are more fraud investigations than ever before. And tougher penalties for violators mean recipients can lose access to their benefits if they defraud the program.

"But states have had varying degrees of success with bringing down their error rates and fighting fraud. We encourage states to go after fraud by giving them enhanced funding for anti-fraud activities. Usually, the federal government pays for half of states' administrative costs in operating the Food Stamp Program. For certain anti-fraud activities, we increase this to 75 percent.

"States who are using this funding well are seeing tremendous savings. By successfully preventing fraudulent benefits from going out, some are saving as much as $70 for each dollar in enhanced funding they receive from us. Other states, however, are not even preventing a full dollar in fraudulent benefits from going out for each dollar in enhanced funding they receive."

Many states with high error rates have asked for guidance from FNS. Providing this guidance and helping states better use the enhanced funding is what the technical assistance teams are designed to do.

Effort is part of Operation Awareness

The teams grow out of and are part of FNS' highly successful food stamp management campaign known as Operation Awareness. Now just finishing its third year, Operation Awareness has encouraged state managers to share skills and problem-solving techniques through conferences, newsletters, catalogues of state and local anti-fraud efforts, and other activities.

Through the State Exchange Program, an important part of Operation Awareness, FNS has paid for food stamp managers to travel to other states and regions to view successful management techniques.

The technical assistance teams add a new dimension to the state exchange concept. "You now have a pool of knowledge from several states organized and available to everyone," Conrad says. He sees the teams working as a communications clearing-house that enables the federal government to carry out technical assistance in a very cost-effective, practical way.

Conrad and other food stamp managers at FNS had considered the idea of hiring a national consultant to travel around the country and offer assistance. They rejected this idea because the services of such a specialist would be expensive and because there might be resistance from states to a high-level outsider coming in to address their problems.

Conrad is pleased with this decision. "We couldn't have done better on the market," he says. "The teams are people who have learned by the school of hard knocks how to solve problems. They're academically prepared, but they've also learned from experience. FNS regional staff have done an excellent job of marshalling the talent within their regions."

The teams have achieved some dramatic results in the year and a half since they were set up. Each FNS regional office had the flexibility to set up its technical assistance team in its own way, so every team is somewhat different. The following highlights illustrate how the teams work and what kind of results they're getting in various areas: