Working Papers for Discussion Distributed at the State Partners Meeting, September 28-29, 2004
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Next Steps - Phase II
Near-Term Activities
Continuing Analysis of Information. In the next several months, the Bureau will be continuing to collect, analyze and evaluate information gathered from the site visits and voluntarily provided from other sources.
Ongoing Communication. The Bureau plans to continue briefings for key associations and grantees to build consensus and pave the way for broad and hopefully reasonably quick buy-in among the States, Territories, and Tribes. The Bureau will design ongoing communication with the States to provide current information on project status and State activities. The Bureau will explore with other federal agencies (e.g., FNS, CMS) ways to learn from their experience and possibly test approaches to State-level collaboration.
State Partners Meeting. The Bureau is conducting a follow-up meeting of field site and Partner States September 28-29, 2004, in Washington, DC to review progress on the initial phase of the project. As with the November 2003 meeting, the Bureau invited State Child Care Administrators, Fraud Directors, Quality Assurance Directors, Auditors, Investigators, Federal partners and contract staff to discuss the project in a closed setting, to allow for a candid exchange of views. This meeting will launch Phase II of the project.
Cost-Benefit Analysis. The Bureau will conduct a cost-benefit analysis to produce a technical assistance document for States to help them think through the economics of controlling errors and fraud, and consider such difficult questions as whether practices that preserve program integrity may also limit client access and client choice. The document is intended to help States to formulate policies for error prevention, detection, and recovery, and provide information that State and Territorial legislatures may use in calculating the return they can expect on an investment in controlling errors and fraud in child care payments.
Technology Conference. A Technology Conference, planned for the winter of 2004-2005, will convene States, Territories and selected Tribes to learn about automation solutions for their data collection challenges. The Conference will also share best practices currently used by States, Territories and Tribes.
Intensive Site Visits. A follow-up pilot project planned for early 2005 with two States (one State-administered, one locally-administered) will offer the Bureau a chance for more intensive site visits for lengthier periods of time, to learn about the States' data management efforts and to explore more thoroughly the economics of child care improper payments at the level of State and local governments. The Bureau is interested in examining a number of technological approaches currently being tested in States, such as software that highlights potential fraud or error and EBT applications for child care vouchers. This follow-up pilot project will focus on policies, procedures and administrative structure, as well as technologies used, and will also provide in-depth fiscal information for the cost/benefit analysis.
State Surveys. The release of the GAO report, "TANF and Child Care Programs: HHS Lacks Adequate Information to Assess Risk and Assist States in Managing Improper Payments," and State self-reports have highlighted the need for systematic information requests of States regarding their efforts to prevent and identify improper payments. The Bureau has submitted a request to survey the States, to ask State Child Care Administrators to provide information on a voluntary basis regarding actions they are taking to reduce or eliminate improper payments in the Child Care Program. The Office for Family Assistance has developed a parallel information request for TANF. A Notice has been published in the Federal Register, for a 60 day comment period. Once the survey is approved and forwarded to the States, State responses will be available to all States for viewing on the HHS/ACF website.
In the course of work on this pilot project it has become clear, from the testimony of State officials and Federal Regional Office staff alike, that there are some Child Care Bureau policies that are seen as inhibiting States in their efforts to prevent, detect or collect erroneous payments. Likewise, policy gaps, and misunderstandings or misinterpretations of current policies also exist.[3] The Bureau will analyze existing law to determine which policy clarifications can be made. The first phase of policy issuances will involve clarifications and new policy in areas that do not involve regulatory or statutory change. If regulatory change is needed, the Bureau will develop an NPRM and forward it to the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families and the Department of Health and Human Services for review. The Bureau is conducting this work within the context of existing law, so the Bureau will not develop recommendations for statutory change as a part of this project.
Developmental Work
Given the absence of direct legislative authority in this area under the Child Care Program, the Child Care Bureau must pay special attention to ways of informing, persuading, and otherwise influencing Child Care Program grantees to continue or even increase their efforts to improve fiscal monitoring and administration. The Bureau is compiling products that will contribute the implementation of new approaches for controlling improper payments. For example, these will include case studies, or other best practice descriptions; model policies/procedures; training materials; systems descriptions; cost/benefit analyses; audit protocols and quality assurance methodologies; and other products intended to help implement improved error prevention and support improved reporting. A roll-out plan will also be developed to provide a strategic framework for moving toward the next stage of implementation.
[3] A
major portion of the two-day meeting of Regional Office staff in
Kansas City in July 2004 was devoted to a discussion of Federal
policy regarding improper payments in child care. (back
to text)