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The Senate Finance and Taxation Committee held public hearings on two bills introduced last week by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur. Both bills passed out of the committee.
SB245 and SB246 both address eligibility and database cross-checking for Medicaid and food assistance benefits like SNAP.
SB245 would explicitly prohibit the Alabama Medicaid Agency from “accepting certain self-attestations or eligibility determinations” and require the Alabama Department of Human Resources to enter into data-matching agreements to “cross-check food assistance eligibility with other data relating to income, employment, assets, and other relevant information.”
The agency and the department would then be asked to publish data relating to investigations of fraud and noncompliance regularly.
“It doesn’t reduce eligibility, doesn’t reduce any of the terms, it just says that we are going to check what is represented by the applicant using the databases that are available to use,” said Orr. We’ll do cross-checks, we’ll check against certain databases that we have already in place and the frequency also, we’ll recheck in case, for example, somebody gets a job and something changes with the economic situation.”
A fiscal note attached to the bill states that, as the bill stands, it would increase the obligations of the Alabama Medicaid Agency by a minimum of $2.7 million in state share dollars. ADHR would see an added minimum of $12.7 million, to “redetermine eligibility monthly for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.”
Carol Gundlach, a senior policy analyst at Alabama Arise, spoke against the bill, pointing out that this bill would negate presumptive eligibility. The House and Senate have passed companion bills HB89 and SB102, introduced by Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, and Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, respectively, to provide pregnant women with presumptive eligibility for Medicaid.
Coleman-Madison inquired as to how this bill would interact with her bill, specifically as it applies to saving the state money. She pointed out that the state would either pay for the preventative care or pay for the possible long-term symptoms associated with having no prenatal care for expecting mothers.
“I’m certainly open to making sure we don’t get into a wrinkle here with those pieces of legislation,” said Orr.
Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, voiced that she was concerned about voting for this bill without hearing about the current eligibility processes in place from the agencies the bill would impact.
“The majority of folks are passing legislation to fix a problem that we don’t actually have,” said Coleman. “I don’t want us to have to come back as a body and undo something that the majority passes because there are some unintended consequences.”
SB245 passed the committee with a vote of 11-3.
SB246 would prohibit ADHR from utilizing broad base categorical eligibility when granting SNAP benefits. Under existing law, certain households are categorically eligible for SNAP benefits because of their “eligibility for other public assistance, benefits, or services, including certain noncash or in-kind benefits.”
“Alabama should follow the lead of states like Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas, which do not use the broad base categorical eligibility loophole and simply enforce the federal asset test to limit food stamps to truly needy and encourage able-bodied adults to work,” said Orr.
SB246, as proposed, would raise ADHR administrative costs by an estimated $14 million due to the expected increase in workload for evaluating SNAP eligibility. The bill could lead to a reduction in SNAP enrollment, though the exact number is uncertain, as it would depend on how many households currently qualify through categorical eligibility but may no longer meet the revised criteria.
Gundlach spoke against this bill, explaining to the committee that the administrative costs of conducting these asset tests often outweigh the benefits, spending state dollars to save federal dollars.
“This is an outdated federal regulation that almost nobody, almost no state in the country uses. It makes no sense for Alabama to move into this,” said Gundlach.
Last year, 44 states utilized this process to streamline low-income families applying to receive SNAP benefits.
“I really wish, Senator Orr, that there was another option, and I’m sure we could come up with one if we could all sit down, not necessarily looking at what other states are doing. Governor Ivey always made the statement, ‘We’re gonna have to find Alabama solutions to Alabama problems.’ Every state is not the same,” said Coleman-Madison.
The bill passed the committee with a favorable report of 10-4.
