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August 2016
Policy&Practice
23
Photo illustration by Chris Campbell
National Accuracy
Clearinghouse Helps
States Save Millions
by Fighting Dual
Participation
By Reshma Khatkhate and Chris Larson
H
Hurricane Katrina obliterated coastal towns,
took hundreds of lives, and displaced more
than 400,000
1
people throughout Southern
Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
For example, in Mississippi alone, more than
one million individuals were impacted by
the storm with more than one in six citizens
seeking assistance from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA).
But long after short-term assistance ended
and the FEMA trucks left, the massive diaspora
of people from around the Gulf Coast continues
to affect health and human service (HHS)
programs like the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) and Disaster-SNAP
(D-SNAP).
Unfortunately, it is inevitable that govern-
ment assistance fraud will follow natural
disasters. Moreover, the post-storm chaos
and displacement from Katrina provided
perfect conditions for some bad actors to cross
state lines to enroll in multiple SNAP and
D-SNAP programs.
Both taxpayers and disadvantaged needy
state residents who rely on the aid suffer the
most when fraud and false claims drain the
system. In Mississippi, residents are in favor of
helping struggling families put much needed
food on the table, but they also want to be
assured that their taxpayer dollars are spent
efficiently and only going to those who are
truly in need. That is why the Mississippi joined
forces with four neighboring states who were
also profoundly affected by Katrina—Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana—to create
the National Accuracy Clearinghouse (NAC),
a multistate data exchange designed to assist
states with the challenge of identifying and
preventing the duplicate issuance of benefits to
recipients and to eliminate improper payments
within SNAP and D-SNAP. Dual or duplicate
participation occurs when a person, inadver-
tently or intentionally, applies in more than one
state during the same calendar month for gov-
ernment benefits.
The NAC’s success has been remarkable. Since
the pilot launch in 2014, the states of Mississippi
and Alabama both realized an 80 percent
decrease in dual participation for the 12-month
pilot period. The NAC’s preventive cost savings
for all five states was $5.6 million. That is just
five states for one program. Just imagine the
impact if the NAC model were adopted nation-
wide not only for SNAP, but for Medicaid,
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF), the Children’s Health Insurance
Program (CHIP), and other HHS programs.
“The success of NAC to date has been
overwhelming, and when implemented
nationwide is estimated to save millions,”