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ORD- 2014 -041 <br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: October 21, 2014 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 6 -h <br />1 <br />SUBJECT: Request for Additional Temporary Staff to Assist with Public Assistance Cases <br />and Approval of Budget Amendment #2 -C <br />DEPARTMENT: Social Services PUBLIC HEARING: (Y /N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Nancy Coston, 919 - 245 -2800 <br />PURPOSE: To approve Budget Amendment #2 -C for the acceptance of $56,259 in additional <br />revenue for Social Services, and approve use of the funds to hire temporary staff to work in <br />public assistance. <br />BACKGROUND: The Orange County Department of Social Services (DSS) has been <br />implementing new state automation, North Carolina Families Accessing Services through <br />Technology (NCFAST) in all public assistance programs. Although the conversion of Food and <br />Nutrition Services is complete, Orange County has served as one of four pilots for the Medicaid <br />programs since January 2014. As is expected during any pilot, it has been slower to complete <br />all the tasks and staff time has also been spent helping with issues related to piloting. After <br />reviewing the amount of work yet to be completed, it appears that DSS will need more <br />resources for the next 5 -6 months. <br />The concentration for the past seven months has been to complete all the applications for <br />Medicaid. In addition to the normal workload, Orange County received over 900 Medicaid <br />applications through the federal marketplace. Almost the entire backlog of applications has now <br />been completed, although this has created a significant backlog on recertification reviews. All <br />reviews not completed during the month due were automatically extended for one month. This <br />was with federal approval to assure that clients were not impacted but that process ends in <br />December. <br />As a pilot county, Orange County could only do the reviews in NC FAST and did not have the <br />option to catch up in the old system. Almost all reviews have continuously rolled forward each <br />month since last January resulting in over 8,500 due by the end of December. In addition, open <br />enrollment for the Affordable Care Act begins November 15th, and last year DSS received <br />almost 1,000 additional Medicaid applications from the federal marketplace. When DSS <br />