Attached are questions and answers in response to issues raised by the states, through various discussions, concerning SNAP provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
FNS staff is working on making improvements to the QC process. One of the major components of the improvements that we are working towards is the development of a paperless work environment for both state and federal QC staff.
It has come to our attention that there is confusion over the Quality Control application of the certification policy that allows state agencies to disallow deductions when the households fails to provide requested verification or fails to report an expense after being advised that failure to do so would result in the loss of a deduction.
The following policy memoranda are superseded by revisions to the FNS 310 Handbook and are now obsolete. At the end of the memos being cancelled is a list of the current QC policy Memos.
The purpose of this policy memo is to notify state agencies of the specific record retention requirements for recent QC review periods. As required by regulations, QC records must be retained for three years following fiscal closure
Attached are 18 Questions and Answers about the drug expenses of Food Stamp clients who also receive Medicare. The Questions and Answers concern the phasing out of the Drug Discount Card, Medicare’s implementation of the new Medicare Prescription Drug Program, and Food Stamp Quality Control. We have developed this guidance in consultation with our federal partners.
FNS and state agencies share a common goal to improve payment accuracy. However, attempts to achieve this goal must not compromise the objective nature of the food stamp quality control (QC) process. The specific purpose of QC is to obtain an accurate measure of error rates. A state agency administering the Food Stamp Program is responsible for insuring that its QC sample and reviews remain free from unacceptable bias.
FDD has received several complaints recently about dried fruit and grain products that became infested in storage. Therefore, it is imperative that dried fruit and grain products are distributed to the end user as soon as possible after receipt from the vendor to avoid problems with infestation.