Rutherford County DSS reports program overages, near-exhaustion of disaster assistance funds and Medicaid redeterminations

Rutherford County Department of Social Services finance staff presented the agency’s budget report and warned that several program lines are over budget even as the department’s total spending remains below the nine‑month benchmark.

In the board meeting, staff reported the department’s total budget at roughly 69.87% of annual appropriation, which they said is about 5.15 percentage points below the expected 75% benchmark for nine months elapsed. The program side showed significant overages: state foster care and specific foster-related lines were described as far over budget, with some foster-related categories near or at full expenditure for the year.

The finance presentation also covered disaster-related funds. Staff said the disaster energy assistance balance (disaster energy assistance account) had roughly $29,800 remaining and that recent additional deposits had been received; they expected the remaining balance to be spent by the end of the following week and said a budget amendment would be filed to reflect additional incoming funds.

Staff discussed changes to Medicaid eligibility procedures tied to the expiration of COVID-era waivers. The board was told that the formal policy requires redetermination steps to begin for cases with a start date of July 1; staff said caseworkers had begun that work immediately. The change means households will need to provide documentation (income, bank statements and other verification) for Medicaid eligibility at the redetermination date rather than relying on temporary waiver provisions.

Finance staff said workforce training is underway because many current caseworkers were not previously working Medicaid cases and need retraining on the redetermination processes. The board heard that supervisors started training the week of the meeting.

Other program discussion included the Work First services program, which staff said has lower active participation (roughly 72 households) and limited take-up because program requirements and small monthly benefit amounts reduce interest for some clients.

Why it matters: Overspending in key program lines, rapidly drawing down disaster relief funds and an imminent policy shift on Medicaid eligibility require staffing, training and potential budget amendments to avoid service interruptions.

The board did not approve new budget allocations during this meeting; staff said they would bring required budget amendments as funds arrive and as program needs become clearer.