How to Streamline Verification of Eligibility for Medicaid and SNAP

Table of Contents

• Section 1: Executive Summary
• Section 2: Federal Verification Requirements 
  • Section A: Medicaid
    • General Principles in Medicaid
    • Medicaid Applications
    • Medicaid Renewals
  • Section B: SNAP
    • General Principles in SNAP
    • SNAP Applications
    • SNAP Periodic Reports and Other Changes
    • SNAP Recertifications
• Section 3: Data Sources to Verify Eligibility
  • Section A: Accessing Data Sources
  • Section B: Federal Data Sources
  • Section C: State Data Sources
  • Section D: Commercial Data Sources
• Section 4: Streamlining Verification

Section 1Executive Summary

This toolkit provides resources for advocates and state agencies seeking to streamline the eligibility verification process for Medicaid and SNAP.

Federal law requires the state and county agencies that administer Medicaid and SNAP to verify that a client is eligible before approving or renewing benefits. An agency may have to verify eligibility factors such as income, household size, assets, and citizenship or immigration status. There are three main methods of verification: obtaining client statements (known as self-attestation), accessing data from other agencies or commercial entities, or requiring the client to provide additional documentation.

In many cases, agencies can rely on a combination of client statements and available data sources to confirm eligibility factors without requiring additional documents from the client. This has several benefits:

• It lowers costs for agencies and clients by reducing administrative burden and expediting processing.^[1]
• It reduces the risk that an eligible client will be unable to obtain or keep benefits because they didn’t receive the notice requesting documents, they didn’t understand what they needed to do to verify their eligibility, or the agency didn’t properly process their documents.
• It improves accuracy.

Federal Medicaid and SNAP regulations lay out the factors that must be verified, what sources can be used, whether self-attestation is an option, and where states have flexibility. This toolkit provides detailed information on these regulatory requirements and options and available data sources. Advocates can use the toolkit to analyze state regulations, policy, and operational practices and identify opportunities to streamline verification. State agencies can also use the toolkit to better understand federal requirements and identify where state policies can be clarified or improved.

Section 2 of this toolkit, Federal Verification Requirements, outlines the requirements for Medicaid and SNAP at application and renewal. It covers policies for each program as well as the specific eligibility factors agencies must verify, when they may use self-attestation or data sources, and when paper documentation may be required.

Section 3, Data Sources to Verify Eligibility, lists federal, state, and commercial data sources that can be used to verify eligibility and explains how states can access this data.

Section 4, Streamlining Verification, discusses how agencies can combine policy, data sources, and operational practices to streamline eligibility determinations at various points in the eligibility process.

Table 1 summarizes the eligibility factors that must be verified for each program and the data sources available to meet that requirement.