Department of Social Services
Family Support Division
PO Box 2320
Jefferson City, Missouri
TO: ALL FAMILY SUPPORT OFFICES
FROM: KIM EVANS, DIRECTOR
SUBJECT: ACCUITY AND THE FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT (FCRA) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
FORM REVISION #
DISCUSSION:
This memo is to introduce staff to mandatory reporting requirements and notices that must be provided to participants/applicants when certain actions are taken and Accuity Asset Verification System was used in the eligibility determination.
Due to Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requirements, when information provided by the Accuity Asset Verification System causes an adverse action to an individual’s active or pending case, the agency must provide additional notification to the participant. Additional information is available in manual section 0110.060.05 Electronic Verification System Legal Basis.
The system generated adverse action and action notices inform the participant of an adverse action or negative action on their case. The applicant or participant must also receive material when information that was used in the eligibility determination was received from a consumer reporting agency as well as the contact information for the consumer reporting agency.
NOTE: The sentence above only pertains to negative actions that are a result of information provided by Accuity.
FAMIS Notices affected are:
- FA-510 Adverse Action Notice
- FA-150 Claimant Action Notice
- FA-420 Adult MO HealthNet Adverse Action Notice
- FA-460 Adult MO HealthNet Adverse Action Notice
System work is currently being completed in FAMIS and will not be available on December 1, 2020 when staff begin to utilize Accuity. In order to meet the FCRA requirements, FSD must send the FCRA notification manually until the system work is completed.
A temporary form, “Information Notice – Regarding an Action on Your Case” (IM-50AA) has been created. This form will be available in the IM Forms Manual and must be mailed manually to participants any time an adverse action or action notice that negatively affects a participant’s case is the result of information provided by Accuity.
NOTE: Staff must complete the Name, Address, date the letter was sent, and the date of the (FA-150) that was used in the eligibility determination.
This requirement affects only programs that are affected by information provided by Accuity: MO HealthNet for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled (MHABD), Temporary Assistance (TA), and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
EXAMPLE: Accuity provides information indicating that an individual is over the resource limit for the TA and SNAP Programs. The participant is under the resource limit for the MHABD program. Staff calls the participant and confirms that the information provided by Accuity is accurate. An adverse action to close the TA and SNAP cases is issued by FAMIS. Staff manually send the Information Notice-Regarding an Action on Your Case form to the participant.
Negative or adverse actions that require the supplemental notice include actions such as case closings and application rejections. If this manual process is in effect at the time that COVID-19 public health emergency ends, this could include coverage changes from MHABD to QMB/SLMB due to resources that exceed the MHABD resource limit.
Please send any questions through proper supervisory channels to the policy unit at COLE.MHNPolicy@dss.mo.gov.
A new memo will notify you when this temporary process ends.
NECESSARY ACTION:
- Review this memorandum with appropriate staff.
KE/rr/am