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Field operations strained by vacancies and aging systems; DHHS seeks prioritized IT and call‑center investments
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Summary
DHHS told the House Finance Committee on March 3 that field eligibility operations face a roughly 23% vacancy rate, long training times for new staff, and heavy monthly workloads; the department proposed prioritized IT and customer‑service investments to address the strain.
Department of Health and Human Services staff told the House Finance Committee on March 3 that the field operations arm of the Bureau of Family Assistance is under significant workload pressure and needs investments in technology and customer service capacity.
"These folks are processing over 8,000, on average, new applications," Karen Hebert said while summarizing field operations workload. She said the bureau also handles roughly 91,000 documents scanned and indexed per month, receives about 29,000 inbound calls monthly through its tier‑1 vendor call center and makes over 26,000 case updates per month.
Officials described two structural challenges: high vacancy and training time, and the need for targeted IT enhancements. The bureau reported a roughly 23% vacancy rate in field operations; many current staff are trainees and the department said it takes nine to 12 months to train new eligibility workers to full competency. Carrie Schroeder, bureau chief for BFA field operations, described a staged training model in which new staff learn programs in sequence and gain responsibility as they prove competency.
New Heights and NH EASY: Adam McCain, project manager for New Heights (the state's integrated eligibility and enrollment system), told the committee the platform now supports about 33,000 active New Hampshire EASY accounts and about one million daily transactions across roughly 1,100 department users. McCain said the MCOs and some external partners have limited read access for specific purposes; most development and system control remains inside the department.
Prioritized needs and proposed investments: DHHS presented a prioritized needs list that included investments to reduce SNAP error rates, improve user experience on the New Hampshire EASY web portal, and stand up an eligibility call center. During the hearing staff identified the eligibility call center as a prioritized need and said it would require funds for staffing and training; slide 36 in the department deck listed an $1.8 million general‑fund request for the call center in the first year of the biennium (department staff later noted the slide totals needed review).
Deloitte engagement and business‑process review: Hebert said the department is working with Deloitte to analyze business models and identify options to shift from a case‑based processing model to a task‑based model where appropriate. The department described a crosswalk of potential business and technology changes aimed at reducing training burdens and increasing throughput.
Why it matters: Committee members said they wanted clearer metrics tying proposed investments to expected productivity gains and potential cost avoidance, such as reduced federal penalty risk or improved SNAP accuracy. Representative Chair comments and members asked for business cases and for the department to provide range estimates (e.g., what smaller investments would buy versus a larger one‑time appropriation).
Next steps: DHHS said it will refine the prioritized needs list, provide business cases and cost‑benefit estimates, and return with revised totals and clarifying documentation. The department also agreed to provide historic workload metrics and vacancy trend lines for committee review.
Ending: The department concluded its Division of Economic Stability presentation noting that the proposed investments and systems changes are intended to reduce processing time, lower error rates and make it easier for clients to apply and keep benefits.
