Implementation of Insurance Match Provisions in §452 of the Social Security Act

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-07-31

ATTACHMENT: OCSE Insurance Match Program State Participation Election Form

DATE: October 4, 2007

TO: ALL STATE AND TRIBAL IV-D DIRECTORS

RE: Implementation of Insurance Match Provisions in §452 of the Social Security Act

In February 2006, Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 amending Section 452 of the Social Security Act to authorize comparisons of information concerning individuals owing past-due child support with information maintained by insurers (or their agents) concerning insurance claims, settlements, awards, and payments. Since the legislation passed last year, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) has been working with the insurance industry and State Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Agencies to implement the insurance match.

Participation in the OCSE Insurance Match Program is optional for both State CSE agencies and insurers. Therefore outreach is critical to obtain maximum State and insurer participation. To this end, OCSE is working with insurance matching partners individually to obtain agreements to conduct the data match. Currently, we have an agreement in place with one matching partner, Colorado’s Workers’ Compensation Agency, and are actively working with several others including, but not limited to, the U. S. Department of Labor and numerous State Workers’ Compensation Agencies. OCSE will notify State CSE Agencies as agreements are reached with new insurance matching partners.

Cases submitted by the participating States through the Federal Offset Program will be used to identify obligors eligible for the insurance match. Participating States will receive insurance matches through the Federal Case Registry (FCR) in the two-part insurance match response record introduced in FCR Release 07-01. The response record layout is contained in the Release Specifications document available at: FCR Release 07-01.

States participating in the OCSE Insurance Match Program will have the ability to:

• Set their specific State minimum arrears threshold.
• Exclude certain sources of claims data for their State.
  (e.g., matches from their State Workers’ Compensation Agency, etc.)
• Exclude individuals from the insurance match on a case-by-case basis using the Insurance Match Exclusion Indicator introduced in Federal Offset Release 07-01.

For additional information on the exclusion indicator, please visit FCR Release 07-01.

Validation of the Insurance Match System will be completed in October 2007. State CSE agencies will be notified through the IV-D Director ListServ when OCSE will begin sending insurance match data to States through the FCR.

If your State would like to participate in the OCSE Insurance Match Program, please complete the attached State Participation Election Form. Submit the Election Form via e-mail or fax to:

   Roy Nix, Chief, Federal Collections and Enforcement
   Email: roy.nix@acf.hhs.gov
   Fax: (202) 401-5553

If you have any questions, please contact Roy Nix at (202) 401-5685 or Sherri Grigsby at (202) 401-6114.

Thank you for your continued participation in efforts to improve the lives of our nation's children.

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Attachment

cc: Regional Program Managers
ACF Regional Administrators
Federal Offset Coordinators