Missouri won’t meet deadline to pay off months of child care subsidy debt • Missouri Independent

A huge backlog of payments to Missouri child care providers will continue beyond October, despite a previous promise that the state would catch up by the end of this month.

Pam Thomas, assistant commissioner of the Missouri Department of Children’s Services, told the State Board of Education on Tuesday that the department will not meet its October goal, explaining that the software company used for the child care subsidy program needs five more weeks to for lack of data.

She is “cautiously optimistic” about the next few weeks and believes the software is close to working as intended.

“Today’s system is not perfect,” Thomas said, “but I’m not sure the system has ever been perfect. There always seem to be technological problems, but we are at or near the end of these major systemic problems.”

A change to the software that tracks eligibility and routes payments to providers began a cumbersome process last December in which families enrolled in the program and child care providers were not properly accounted for.

Providers began to complain that they were missing months of payment from the state and were close to closing. The program supplements or pays for daycare or preschool for children from low-income families. According to service providers, some families were turned away due to lack of payment from the government. during a hearing held by state lawmakers last month..

There are just over 2,400 health care providers who are contracted to serve children through the subsidy. From January to May—when the software was most problematic—1,818 providers received at least one payment. Of these, half are under review to verify the calculation of assistance.

“Current payments to providers are calculated correctly and accurately,” Thomas said. “The issue is not current payments, but what was previously paid.”

Missouri lawmakers hear from child care providers about huge backlog in subsidy payments

Since the beginning of the year, 70 child care providers have left the child care subsidy program and 141 have applied to participate in the program. It is unclear how many of these requests were fulfilled. There is a separate portfolio of supplier requests, both new to the system and renewals, that the office is handling.

About 400 vendor applications are pending state review, according to estimates generated by the software and presented to the board of education Tuesday. Thomas estimates it will take six weeks to reduce the backlog of applications to below 200, which she said is about what she expects to receive in a month on renewal.

The state remains more than 400 providers short of what the program had in 2019, and the need for participating child care centers remains high.

Every month the department receives about 4,000 applications from families for child care assistance. For months, parents watched their applications sit in a queue and were unable to receive the subsidy after the new software came into effect.

The current waitlist for parent applications is similar to last year, but Thomas said it’s still not perfect. She wants to reduce the number of applications to 500 at a time, which is about a week of office work, a goal she estimates will be reached in four to six weeks.

“We want to work on cases that we received in the last one to two weeks, but right now we are working on cases that we received in September and October,” she told the board.

Board President Charlie Shields of St. Joseph asked if there would be a way to automatically approve some applicants.

Presumptive eligibility is allowed, but employees will still be required to verify income after a period of service, Thomas said.

“We need to have child care providers who can serve them. We have to have the funding to serve them,” Thomas said. “So while I understand and appreciate that side of it, it may have some unintended consequences.”

Another board member recommended conducting a risk assessment to evaluate what would happen if the office had automatic approval.

Some applications are rejected because applicants did not provide requested identification or two pay stubs, Thomas said.

Board member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge of Pasadena Hills said the app should ask people for complete information, not allowing them to move forward until every field is checked.

“It’s better to get kicked out before you get into the pipeline so you can go and get what you need,” she said.

A woman in the audience said quietly: “Or they sit for six months.”

Thomas did not appear to consider changing the application process. The state is not allowed to restrict people from applying, she said.

Thomas said she’s starting to see signs of the system returning to normal, and the call center said one of its top five questions is how to apply to become a health care provider. The help center has been overwhelmed with other issues in recent months, and callers have reported long wait times for answers.

Thomas said the process should go more smoothly for program participants, with average wait times dropping from an hour to 15 minutes over the past month.

“How do you feel about our providers and families, what is their current attitude toward us?” asked Kerry Casey, a board member from Chesterfield.

“They’re still frustrated that we don’t have them all and not all the payment requests have been processed,” Thomas said. “And all family applications are not considered.”