Password:
RECIPIENT: Minnesota Program Integrity Efforts: Preventing and Eliminating Welfare Fraud
State of Minnesota Program Integrity Efforts: Preventing & Eliminating Welfare Fraud Host: Dianne Adams, NASCIO Programs and Education Coordinator Featuring: Ramona Scarpace, Program Assessment and Integrity Division Director and Brian Shields, Program Integrity Supervisor, Department of Human Services, State of Minnesota April 10, 2008 Run Time: 13 minutes, 37 seconds Download
The state of Minnesota recognizes that it is critical for taxpayers to trust in the overall honesty and integrity of public assistance programs for the state’s neediest citizens. Minnesota’s Family Investment Program (MFIP) is the state’s primary vehicle for helping low-income families with children make the transition from poverty into the workplace. In 2006, state spending for MFIP cash and state food assistance was $55 million and federal spending was $224 million. Some 37,000 Minnesota families used MFIP in an average month during 2006. “This project demonstrates perfectly the power we have to address the business of government and to impact lives through innovative and collaborative technology solutions. The Department of Human Services has done an excellent job building a system that collects critical data from a variety of sources and enables the effective use of that data across jurisdictional boundaries to improve systems, services and, ultimately, lives by eliminating fraud and thus better managing resources. I am delighted that NASCIO recognizes the department's accomplishments and add my heartfelt congratulations to those who made this project so successful.” Gopal Khanna, CIO, State of Minnesota
Such a broad-based program requires sophisticated program integrity efforts. Minnesota has developed a comprehensive three-step fraud fighting process that involves front-end analysis, criminal investigations and collections. Program Integrity Network (PIN) is designed to improve the accuracy of public assistance eligibility determinations, and to help prevent, control, recover, and evaluate public assistance program payments made to ineligible persons.
Relying on a Business Intelligence (BI)/enterprise data warehouse as its informational and knowledge backbone, the PIN system was originally designed for use by welfare fraud investigators. It has expanded its base over the last few years to serve more than 300 people from several different professional categories. The front-end process, the Fraud Prevention Investigation (FPI) program, involves state and county staff members working collaboratively to prevent and control recipient fraud in Minnesota’s child care, health care and food programs.
Because the BI/data warehouse links data from a variety of disparate sources, including welfare eligibility system, medical eligibility, child support, wage and employer data, auto registrations and more, investigators are quickly able to build economic, demographic, and behavioral profiles to determine if further investigation is warranted. Moreover, the BI/data warehouse enables investigators to construct queries using their own knowledge and to drill down intuitively, as opposed to using mainframe-based data.
The results have been dramatic. In 2006, investigators completed more than 7,400 front-end investigations, stopped or reduced benefits in 45 percent of them, found and corrected case file information discrepancies in 70 percent of the investigations, and identified more than $12.2 million in cost avoidance (benefits not paid) and overpayments. Investigations also stopped disbursement or identified for collection a total of $4.46 for every $1 spent on program administrative costs.
Once the front-end process is completed, some welfare fraud cases may rise to felony theft levels and require the involvement of the criminal justice system. In 2006, criminal investigators completed nearly 2,500 criminal investigations, proving benefits had been illegally obtained in 60% of them, and identifying $5.2 million in overpayments. In the collections phase, the Treasury Offset Program intercepts federal payments and tax returns to recover Food Support debt, with $21.3 million collected since 1999.
NOMINATIONS: Click on the link to download program submission.
Alabama Online Lease Search
California California Information Technology (IT) Succession Managment Planning Toolkit and Training
Indiana Enterprise Systems: Implementation & Consolidation
Kentucky Kentucky Postsecondary Education Data Portal
Michigan Achieving Breakthrough Results in Health Care Delivery, Management, and Cost Containment
Missouri Missouri Conquers the Space Challenge
North Carolina North Carolina Department of Transportation Pre Construction Project Status Dashboard
Nebraska Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Digital Law Library
Oklahoma Remote Safety Verification Program: Improvement Of Safety Services to Policyholders
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania's Enterprise Asset Repository (PEAR)
Texas Statewide Technology Cooperative Contracting Program: Transforming Traditional Procurement to Knowledge-Driven Sourcing in Texas
Utah Access to Utah Government Services: Customized Search Engine and Online Services Database
Virginia Virginia Performs: Virginia’s performance, leadership and accountability system
Washington The Washington State Conservation Commission's Watershed Data Pilot Project
Return to 2007 Awards Main Page
