Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Feds investigating DHS

The feds are investigating the Mississippi's management of the SNAP program. Steve Wilson, formerly of Mississippi Watchdog, reported in Mississippi Matters:

The Mississippi Department of Human Services is under an "ongoing investigation" over its management of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), according to a demand letter uncovered by the Mississippi Independent.

The state could have to pay back more than $5.7 million in bonuses it received because of improvements in the error rate for the SNAP program from 2011 until 2015.

The letter was dated February 15 and DHS spokesman Paul Nelson says the agency is under an ongoing investigation, which stemmed from multiple contracts between the DHS and Julie Osnes Consulting, which netted her firm more than $463,000.

Nelson says the DHS has terminated the contract with Osnes, which was supposed to run through 2020, has been terminated.

The firm was contracted by the Mississippi Department of Human Services since 2011 to assist with improving error rates with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program administered by the agency.

Three other states that hired Osnes to help improve the error rates for their SNAP programs — Alaska, Virginia and Wisconsin — reached settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Read the rest of the article here.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

the SNAP program is what we used to call food stamps. but we cant use that term anymore because it is offensive and degrading to the recipients . this government give away program is presumably to see that 'the hungry' in mississippi get fed. please someone explain to me that if we have so many people that suffer from hunger, why is it that mississippi is the runaway leader in morbid obesity, and half the shoppers in walmart are riding around in their little motorized shopping carts because they are literally to fat to walk?

Anonymous said...

Great time to move Medicaid under DHS also. They can screw that up too.

Anonymous said...

...because poor people eat junk. Junk is cheap. Hungry doesn’t mean starving, and poor doesn’t mean you look like you’re in a famine.

You can be hungry and fat, just like you can write a hyperbolic view on a blog post and still be dumb.

Anonymous said...

INVESIGATE NSPARC

Anonymous said...

Why do they have to contract with a company to help them make mistakes?
From what I see they can make plenty on their own.

Anonymous said...

9:44 did you mean investigate? If so, that won’t ever happen. Becca the Fox watches the NSPARC Hen House.

Medicaid Is Worse By Far.. said...

No need to move Medicaid to get it in the 'screwed up' column. That agency is by far more screwed up than DHS. After having dealt with at least seven of their professional and senior level staff over the past five years, I can truthfully say not a damned one of them was competent.

Kingfish: How many complaints do you need before you do something about the robot test. It's beyond idiotic to have to go through ten to twelve 'select the streets, cars, signs and storefront' items. It's gotten insane.

Anonymous said...

Take a walk through any grocery store.
Look at the price per pound of all food stuffs.
Notice anything? Vegetables are cheap compared to junk food.
Look at the price per pound for meat. Look at the price per pound for potato chips.
No look at the price per pound for almost any vegetable.
That bullshit about junk food being cheaper is not true.

Anonymous said...

9:42
"poor" people CHOOSE to eat junk. It's what they like. They could just as easily choose to eat healthier food, but don't and won't.

Anonymous said...

10:17, fat people on SNAP don't have time to cook and prepare that cheap healthy food because they're so busy working. :/S

Anonymous said...

10:23...it takes time to change that paradigm. Give it a few more years. The former First Lady put a program in place to provide healthy alternatives and teach children to eat healthy. Now, when they grow into young adulthood, they will have stopped eating chips and pizza and ribs and will be purchasing salads, fruits and low carb choices. Give it a few more years for the dynamic to totally change.

Anonymous said...

"You can be hungry and fat, just like you can write a hyperbolic view on a blog post and still be dumb."

Or you can get on a blog site and claim junk food is cheap and still walk around unsupervised in public places.

Anonymous said...

Someone should run a study to see how many pounds of food are given free in Mississippi. We feed people with the Mississippi Food Network, with schools, with places like Stewpot, from Churches, from Meals-on-Wheels, from the Gleaners, you name it. Then we give SNAP cards to use for many things. My guess is free pounds/person would be astounding. If a method of distributing only good-for-you foods could be established, then SNAP would not be necessary. WIN could continue the formula and diaper service. My bet is the obesity rate would drop.

Anonymous said...

Big misconception about SNAP is that everyone who is on it doesn't work. In reality many of our teachers and our military qualify for benefits. And, while some of it is bad choices have you ever considered how far away some people are from a grocery store? I work at a University and I was shocked several years ago when a student wrote an assignment on being able to walk to the grocery store for the first time in their life. They were fortunate if someone in their family was able to drive them the fifty miles to a Walmart once every couple of months. The rest of the time they shopped at Dollar General and Family Dollar. Spend a little time around the working poor and/or the rural poor and you might realize that your stereotypes might make it easy for you to stay in your ivory tower but it doesn't do a thing to help. Absolutely, some people have made poor choices and are lazy. But,if that is all you want to see it is all you will see. There are plenty of people doing the very best they can with what they have.

Cash me ousside, how bou dah? said...

10:57 - Yes, Michelle Obama's healthy school lunch program was such a rousing success that it increased food costs and waste, while creating a black market for real food in schools, and not to mention the "lunch shaming" many school admins engaged in. Never mind that you'd never catch her fat ass or her children eating any of that crap.

YAY socialism!

Anonymous said...

to 9;42.. typical left wing hyperbolic response.

Anonymous said...

11:28,In many cases the reason there is not a grocery store within walking distance is it went out of business because of theft and robbery.
Spend a little time watching those who do not live within walking distance of a grocery store and you will see why there isn't a grocery near them.

Anonymous said...

The pregnant question about DHS taking over this program from Medicaid is this. Who are the staff people pushing this idea in the Governor's office, and why? Rumor is that one of them is trying to assassinate the character of, and launch a coup attempt against the Medicaid director so that person can get his job. The other rumor is that another staffer is in the pocket of the Hospital Association and supporting their dishonest efforts to undermine the oversight and accountability that comes with managed care. Maybe the feds should extend their investigation of DHS to include these staff people and the Ms. Hospital Association along with and their political patrons.

Burke said...

Our beloved Anna Wolfe did a good series in the Clarion-Ledger about "food deserts" within the city, where poor people have limited access to healthy food options because they are too far away from a grocery store. They resort to buying food at convenience stores or gas stations.

As is too often the case, the trolls among us lack the imagination to be able to put themselves in the shoes of the poor.

Anonymous said...

Hey 10:13, apparently the robot test regimen needs to be more difficult instead of less. After all, you passed the test. Word!

Anonymous said...

Finding healthy food in most proverty stricten areas is the real problem. Not many C-stores stock fruits and vegetables.

Kingfish said...

Not necessarily robbery and theft. Margins are lower. Average order size is much smaller. The profit is only a penny on the dollar.

Anonymous said...

10:57
Either that is some dream world you live in, or I missed your sarc completely.

Anonymous said...

12:30 nailed it so good he must be an insider. ALWAYS follow the money because any sane person could not make up the stuff that Wiggins and Bryant are saying about fixing Medicaid. Just check the campaign finance forms.

Anonymous said...

Not only are we paying for them to eat junk food when the programs as originally conceived to get vegetables stuck on farms directly to poor people, but we pay the Medicaid bill because they choose to eat junk food. Now we’re paying for their junk food and their heart surgery and diabetes. America, ain’t it great.


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