Floyd County social services outlines SNAP, Medicaid changes and possible state penalties

Department of Social Services staff told the Floyd County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 9 that federal and state changes tied to the 2024 federal welfare law could substantially affect local SNAP and Medicaid administration and state budgets. Hope Estes, benefit program supervisor, said the Medicaid and SNAP programs have separate rules and timelines and that major changes — including immigrant eligibility rollbacks and possible work requirements — will phase in over the next several years. "Medicaid's really on top of things because they've already given us a timeline of expectations of changes that are gonna be coming over the next 2 to 3 years," Estes said. She said noncitizen Medicaid restrictions take effect in October 2026 and that a Medicaid work requirement could begin as early as October 2028, with exemptions similar to SNAP for disability, caregiving and schooling. Estes also warned about a large fiscal shift in SNAP administrative funding scheduled for federal FY 2028, when the federal/state match for administration would move from a 50/50 match to a 25/75 split. "So that's gonna be ... a $270,000,000 shift," she said, and added that Virginia’s current SNAP error rate — cited in the presentation as roughly 11.5% — could expose the state to an additional penalty on the order of $270 million if the error rate remains high. Estes described the SNAP error-rate calculation as coming from federal quality-control reviews that randomly select cases; she said localities are currently evaluated as a statewide average and that staffers and the state are pressing for locality-level error-rate data and training to reduce mistakes. Board members asked procedural questions about how the error rate is determined and whether localities can be judged separately; Estes said the state currently reports a single statewide rate and that local differences in staffing and turnover could make uniform statewide assessment problematic. The department also described expected changes to SNAP work requirements, which likely will require adults below certain ages to work, volunteer or participate in training 20 hours a week, with many potential exemptions. Supervisors discussed whether the county should publicly press the state to allow locality-level error-rate assessments and to seek state guidance on steps local offices can take to reduce errors. No formal action was taken; supervisors directed staff to continue monitoring state guidance and training updates so the county can respond if the state moves to locality-specific penalties or new administrative requirements.