OHIO

MONITORING FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

Goal: Improve performance and increase incentives for the state and local agencies by monitoring the program on a monthly basis.

Description: Statewide monthly monitoring, which began in June 2002, is a supervisory tool used by the State Office of Child Support (OCS) to provide guidance to counties, to improve performance and increase collections to families in Ohio.

Ohio is a state supervised, county administered program. The state's CSEAs are divided into one of three tiers based on caseload size and/or performance in the incentive categories. Counties understand that improved performance may increase incentives earned by the state which are then distributed to each county.

The monthly monitoring process involves staff from the OCS, Bureau of County Services, and each of Ohio's 88 child support enforcement agencies. OCS staff are responsible for completing the monthly random selection and review of cases (when applicable) to complete the monitoring process. After the review the results are provided to CSEAs prior to on-site visits, phone conferences, video conferences, or via email.

The monitoring process is used to educate counties and improve accuracy of each case data in Ohio's Support Enforcement Tracking System (SETS). Monthly monitoring categories are determined by OCS's identification of program areas where improved performance is required. OCS works in conjunction with a CSEA monthly monitoring focus group (a group of 9 counties) to obtain their input and suggestions on monitoring documentation and methodology before the program was implemented statewide. Monitored categories currently consist of Application Aging, Supervisory Review, Case Closure, Undistributed Collections, Medical Support, Financial Institution Data Match, Paternity and Interstate. In addition, data mapping of the Federal OCSE 157 report was completed to convey to counties the fields and screens in the statewide system which are used to prepare the report.

In preparation for rolling out each category OCS staff prepared a procedure manual called a "tool kit" which includes, but is not limited to:

• Ohio's Child Support Enforcement Manual (CSEM) citations;
• Available mainframe and web based reports;
• Business and system requirements work flows;
• SETS screens; and
• The method forms used by OCS to conduct the monthly monitoring review.

During the monitoring process, when improvement goals or tasks completion (such as the elimination of a backlog) are date-driven, counties may be required to complete a Performance Enhancement Plan (PEP). The PEP is a written document, monitored monthly, outlining the county's plan to complete the task or achieve the required improvement goal by the specified date.

Results:

June 2002: OCS completed roll-out of tool kits for the application aging and supervisory review categories.

• Ohio decreased outstanding applications by 99% through May 2003.
• Through May 2003, OCS reviewed 18,504 cases randomly selected for the purpose of ensuring the supervisor approval function insets is properly used in reviewing staff decisions for case closure, billing suppression, and financial adjustments. Eighty-eight percent of the cases reviewed have passed.

July 2002: OCS rolled out tool kits for the Case Closure and Undistributed Collections categories:

• Through May 2003, over 140,000 cases with a high likelihood of closure were identified from existing reports. CSEA's closed over 49,000 of these cases or approximately 35% of the baseline.
• Overall undistributed collections were reduced by over $15 million through May 2003.

August 2002: OCS rolled out tool kits for the Medical Support Enforcement and Financial Institution Data Match (FIDM) categories. Also distributed in August was a data map of the Federal OCSE 157 report. The data map linked report lines to the corresponding data fields which users must complete accurately in the statewide system. Additionally, a recommended enforcement techniques workflow was distributed to counties. The workflow conveys available administrative and legal remedies to be used when enforcing support orders.

• CSEA's work from two reports which identify cases needing medical support orders and cases requiring action to enforce a medical support order. Each county is required to review the medical support requirements on at least 10 cases per month.
• Ohio monitors the number of FIDM collections and the amount of the collections for each county every month. As a result, an increase in the number and amount of collections via the FIDM program has occurred. Ohio has collected over $4.6 million through the FIDM program through 2003.

April 2003: OCS rolled out Paternity with monitoring beginning May 2003. Counties were provided with specific reports to help them identify cases where paternity needed to be established.

June 2003: OCS rolled out Interstate with monitoring beginning July 2003. Counties have begun to identify cases on the system which need to be built as initiating or responding interstate cases. Reports were created and distributed to counties to assist them with this effort.

Location: All counties in Ohio.

Funding: Regular IV-D funds are used.

Replication Advice: Implement monitoring categories in stages. Obtain stakeholder input into the process. The collection of measurable data is essential in order to determine progress. Establishing the new categories for monitoring should be completed in county staff meetings which are accessible and convenient for local offices to attend.

Contact:

Althena Reily

Bureau Chief

Phone: (614) 466-4123

Email: Rileya@odjfs.state.oh.us

LeeAnn Cooper

Section Chief

County Review

Phone: (614) 466-4065

Email: Coopel01@odjfs.state.oh.us

Al Marcinonis

Section Chief

County Support

Phone: (614) 466-4094

Email: Marcia01@odjfs.state.oh.us