Committee recommends funding R7 County Administration and CBMS enhancements

A legislative committee voted to recommend funding the R7 County Administration and CBMS enhancements operating request, a packet of county-support and technology upgrades presenters said would reduce county worker workload and improve eligibility processing. Representative Paschall moved the recommendation; the roll call recorded multiple "aye" votes and one excused member, and the committee chair announced the motion approved.

The request before the committee asks for a $5,100,000 general fund investment that presenters said would leverage federal matching to yield about $40,000,000 in total program resources. Director Bimstaffer, who opened the presentation, described R7 as "our budget request that supports our counties and our eligibility process and our systems therein." Maribel Klukman, eligibility division director, and Nina Mack, head of product for CBMS, led a technology-focused briefing on the specific projects R7 would fund.

Why it matters: committee members and county directors said the proposed work aims to shorten processing times, reduce manual data entry and free eligibility workers to focus on complex cases. "Counties are the primary users of the system. We have approximately 2,500 users across the state, and it is the most critical tool we have in delivering both public and medical…