Income. Income HuBERT Training Module 1

Transcription

1 Slide Title Introduction Objectives <PF1> <PF2> <PF2> Cont. Slide Text Income This HuBERT on-demand training module is provided by the MN Department of Health WIC Program. It is an overview of documenting income in the HuBERT system. Documenting Income is a required part of the certification process. It is important to follow state policy for determining income eligibility, which can be found in MOM section Because there are many different types of income proof, this module will present the most efficient process for assessing and documenting income, based on the various types. As an overview, first we check if there is an income documented previously that can be copied using the Copy to Current Function. If not, then we check for participation in an adjunctively eligible program, such as Medical Assistance. Finally, if neither of those applies, we document income using the traditional method of calculating money coming into a household. After discussing how to document income, we will then review documenting other common income scenarios such as what to do when participant forgets to bring their income, what happens when an income does not meet the income guidelines, as well as a few other possible scenarios. Income History Tab This is the Income History tab of the Participant Folder. All of the household income contacts are displayed in the Income History tab. Each contact includes the date, amount per year, all proofs selected and the household size. Income is saved at a household level. Therefore, if multiple household members are being certified on the same day, the income only has to be entered one time; the information automatically copies to all the household members' records. Income contacts are generally added in the CGS as part of the certification. However, in some instances, we may need to enter an income in the Participant Folder. This can only be done if the participant is already in a valid certification period; the Add Income Screening Contact icon is only enabled when the participant is currently certified. To add an Income Screening Contact from the Participant folder, we click on this icon. Go ahead and click the icon. The Income Calculator screen in the participant folder is the same as the CGS. We are not able to view the entire screen so we ll shift our view to see the bottom portion of the screen. Page 1

2 <PF3> <PF4> <CGS1> <CGS2> All of the previous household Income Screening Contacts on the left side of the screen and an Income Screening Contact for today is generated when we open this screen. The household size and amount per year default in as zeroes (0) and will update as we add our income information. For some of the contacts, information is not visible. We can use the scroll bar to view the rest of the information. Alternatively, we can hover our mouse over the line to view the entire contact. The other areas of the Income Calculator include: The Adjunctive Eligibility section where participation in a program that provides adjunctive eligibility can be documented; the Pending Proof of Income checkbox where we can indicate that a participant did not have their income with them when they were certified; the Income Information section where traditional income contacts can be documented; and The Household Size field, which is required every time we document income. We will go through all of this in detail as we practice adding income records. We are looking at the Income History for the Bear family. Sister Bear was recertified on 10/25/13 and an income was recorded. Teddy Bear is here for a recertification today. Since Income is usually documented as part of certification, we are going to demonstrate how to document income in the CGS. Copy to Current This is the demographics section of the CGS for Teddy Bear. Click the calculator icon to open the Income Calculator Again, we are looking at the lower portion of the screen. The first thing to check when we are documenting income is whether there is a record from within the past 92 days that we can copy. We are only required to assess a household's income every three months. If an income record already exists that was documented within the past 92 days, we don't have to reassess income. However, we still need to document an income contact because it is required to complete Teddy Bear's certification. We do this by using the Copy Items to Current Income function. <CGS2> Cont. Today is 12/27/13. The last income record is from 10/25/13, which is within 92 days so we can use it as the income for today s certification. To do so, we need to highlight the contact we would like to copy. Page 2

3 <CGS3> <CGS4> <CGS5> <adj1> <adj2> <adj3> <adj4> <adj4> Cont. Go ahead and click on the 10/25/13 contact. The Copy Items to Current Income button becomes enabled since the income contact was recorded within 92 days. Go ahead and click the button to copy the income. The information copies to the current contact......and the Original Screening Date reflects that this income was copied from an earlier contact. Notice, the income can be modified, BUT WE SHOULD NOT MODIFY IT!! Changes should never be made to the income record when we use the copy function. Click OK to save the income. Notice the income displays. Adjunctive Eligibility Let's take a look at using adjunctive eligibility to document income. Sandy Beach is here for a recertification. Go ahead and click on the Calculator to document income. Sandy s last income was collected more than a year ago, so Copy to Current is not an option. Our next step is to verify if Sandy is adjunctively eligible before proceeding with the more time-intensive traditional income screening. We only need to verify participation in one of the following programs: Food Support, MFIP, MN Health Care Program- Medical Assistance, MN HealthCare Program- MN Care, Fuel Assistance, Head Start or School Meals. SSI and TEFRA will be discussed separately since they function a bit differently than the rest. Sandy participates in Medical Assistance or MHCP-MA. Go ahead and select MHCP-MA. Next we must verify the proof of enrollment and document it in the dropdown list. Verification of adjunctive eligibility occurs outside of the system. Only once a participant's enrollment is verified using other methods (such as viewing a current letter of eligibility or using on-line or telephone verification methods) can we document that we've obtained proof. Go ahead and click the arrow to see the list of options for proofs. The options for proof are: Eligibility letter, Pending Proof - 30 day, Phone / System Verification, and Presumptive Eligibility - 90 day. Page 3

4 <adj5> <adj6> <adj7> <adj8> <adj9> <adj10> <adj11> <IndAdjEl1> <IndAdjEl2> <IndAdjEl3> <IndAdjEl4> Presumptive Eligibility is unique to the MHCP programs and will be discussed later. We verified her participation in Medical Assistance on the phone. Go ahead and select Phone/System Verification. Notice the Income Contact for today updates as we enter information... There is one more field we need to complete to finish this income contact. Go ahead and double click on Household Size to highlight the zero so that we can type over it. The Beach household size has not changed. Go ahead and use information from this screen to enter the household size and click OK to save the contact. The income contact has been recorded for all family members. If other family members are being certified the same day, we do not need to enter any more income information When we use Adjunctive Eligibility, the Yearly Income does not change in the demographics screen......but rest assured, the income verification is saved. One other thing to note; Since we are looking at an income record for today, the fields are enabled and able to be edited. Please select the income from 12/18/2012. The details display but the income contact is no longer editable since it is from a date in the past. Go ahead and click Cancel. That s all for Sandy. Next we ll take a look at SSI and TEFRA, which are adjunctive eligibility programs that only apply to the individual and not the household. Individual Adjunctive Eligibility Rainbow and Guppie are here for recertification today. Go ahead and click the calculator icon to record an income contact for Rainbow. SSI and TEFRA function differently from the other Adjunctive Eligibility programs. The difference is that they grant INDIVIDUAL eligibility instead of household eligibility. Rainbow receives SSI and has a letter as proof. Go ahead and document this. Page 4

5 <IndAdjEl5> <IndAdjEl6> <IndAdjEl7> <IndAdjEl8> <Trad1> <Trad2> <Trad3> <Trad4> <Trad5> <Trad6> <Trad7> <Trad8> <Trad9> <Trad10> <Trad11> <Trad11> Cont. Rainbow s Individual Eligibility displays below the household record since it only applies to Rainbow. Both SSI and TEFRA will appear like this. A household size is still required. The Fish family has 4 people in their household. Go ahead and record that and click OK to save the contact. Since the income record entered for Rainbow only applies to her, we need to add another income record to complete Guppie's certification. Let's take a look at how to enter a traditional income record for a household. Traditional Income Screening Guppie is also being recertified today but does not receive SSI. He doesn't participate in any other Adjunctive programs either so we will have to record a traditional income. Go ahead and click the Calculator icon. Traditional income is recorded in the Income Information area. Click the Add Item button to add an income. The Add Income Line Item screen opens providing a variety of options for recording income depending on the proof provided. Guppie s mom has brought in her pay stub showing she works 30 hours per week at a rate of $9 per hour. Click the Hourly radio button to document this income. Enter 9 in the Amount per Hour box and HuBERT will fill in the rest. Then hit the Tab key or click in the Hours per Week box. Type 30 in the Hours per Week box and click the down arrow to see the Proof menu. Click the scroll bar to see the list of Proof options. We are not required to copy or scan any documents for proof. By selecting an option from the Proof drop-down, we are indicating that the participant provided that particular proof of income and that we reviewed it. Select Pay Stub. Click OK to save the Income. The Income we just added is listed in the Income Information section and they system automatically calculates the Amount per Year. Unlike adjunctive eligibility, we need to assess if there are any other possible sources of income that should be recorded. Guppie s mom also receives child support payments. Page 5

6 <Trad12> <Trad13> <Trad14> Go ahead and add that income; She receives $250 per month. <Trad15> Oops! Her child support payments are $300 per month, not $250. <Trad16> <Trad17> <Trad17a> <Trad18> <Trad18a> <Trad20> <PP1> <PP2> <PP3> <PP4> <PP4> Cont. Click on the income we just entered for her child support to highlight it. Click on Edit Item......double click on the $250 and change to $300. Then Click OK or hit the Enter key. The Line Item is updated with the new value. Notice that we can also Delete an item if needed. Editing and deleting income records can only occur on the date they are entered into HuBERT. Otherwise, we would need to create a new income record. HuBERT also adds all incomes entered to calculate the Total Amount per Year. To complete our income record, we always need to add a household size. Double-click in household size and indicate a household size of 4 and click OK to save our income record. Notice that our annual calculated income displays next to the calculator in the Yearly Income section on Demographics. That s all for documenting traditional income. Next we ll look at what to do if the participant forgot their proof of income. Temporary Eligibility June Bug is here for a recertification and has forgotten her proof of income. Since income documentation is required to complete the CGS let s click on the calculator icon to see what our options are. First, let s see what we could do if June forgot proof of eligibility for an adjunctive program. Go ahead and click the check box for MFIP......and open the drop down to see the proof options. Pending Proof - 30 Day is an option available for all of the Adjunctive Eligibility Programs. It should be selected if the participant is currently participating in the adjunctive program but does not have proof at the certification. The 30 day indicates June is temporarily eligible for 30 days and should receive one month s worth of benefits. Page 6

7 <PP5> <PP6> <PP7> <PP8> <PP9> <PP10> <PP11> <PP12> <PP13> <PP13a> <PP14> <PP15> <PP16> <PP17> <PP118> <PP19> <PP20> However, June has forgotten her W-2 so go ahead and click the drop-down again to close the menu; and de-select the MFIP checkbox. June s mom says she earns $23,000 a year. Go ahead and add that income. Enter 23,000 and click the drop-down for Proof of Income. PENDING PROOF indicates that the participant did not provide proof of income. Go ahead and select it. Enter 23,000 and click the drop-down for Proof of Income drop-down. Click OK to save our income record. In addition to the documentation we just completed, the Pending Proof of Income checkbox MUST be selected if the participant cannot provide proof of adjunctive eligibility or income at the time of certification. Selecting the checkbox triggers the functionality that limits the participant to one month of benefits and activates a system-generated alert indicating the need for proof of income. Go ahead and select the checkbox. Great! Now just add a household size of 4 and click OK. Let s skip ahead now to the benefit issuance screen to see the functionality triggered by selecting the Pending Proof of Income checkbox. June Bug is suggested one month of benefits with the explanation Participant has a proof pending and will be limited to one issuance. Now let s see what happens when June Bug comes back in February. It s February and June Bug is back with her proof of income. Go ahead and open her folder. The system-generated alert reminds us that proof of income is needed for this participant. Go ahead and click Close or hit the Enter key. Let s see what happens if we try to issue benefits without adding an income. Click the Issue Benefits icon. Nope! The benefit issuance message informs us the June Bug has proof pending and has already received the one set of benefits allowed. So we must resolve the pending proof before we can issue any more benefits. Click the Cancel button. Where do you think we go to add income in the Participant Folder? Go ahead. Page 7

8 <PP21> <PP22> <PP23> <PP24> <PP25> <PP25a> <PP26> <PP27> <PP28> Notice that PENDING PROOF displays in the Income History tab. Do you remember how to open the income calculator from here? Go ahead. And remember, adding an income in the Participant Folder is just like adding it in the CGS. Keep in mind that we can t use the Copy Items to Current Income functionality because that only copies the exact same income and we can t make any changes to it. Since we need to add proof, we need to create a new income record. June Bug brought her W-2 form as proof of income, which indicates she has an annual salary of $23,000. Go ahead and add her new income record. Click the scroll bar. <PP29> Her household size is still 4. <PP29a> <PP30> <PP31> End Slide Enter it and save the new income record. <pause for animation> Let s try issuing benefits again and see what is suggested. HuBERT now suggests the tri-monthly benefits for which June Bug is eligible. Copy to Current, Adjunctive Eligibility and traditional income screening will comprise the majority of our income contacts. The next module will review some of the less common income documentation scenarios. We appreciate you taking the time to review this HuBERT on-demand training module presented by the MN Department of Health WIC Program. Page 8