More than 60 organizations that serve a wide variety of vulnerable families and children across the state penned a letter to Gov. Greg Gianforte, calling on him to improve access to public benefits.
Signatories included health care facilities, nonprofits and advocacy organizations from tribal reservations, rural communities and urban areas such as Missoula, Helena and Billings. They said they’ve all watched people struggle to access essential services such as Medicaid and food programs.
“Thousands of Montana families encounter periods of difficulty when they need access to a secure and manageable safety net,” the letter said.
Dated June 17, the letter asks the Republican governor to allocate more funding to the Department of Public Health and Human Services, the state’s largest agency that oversees the vast majority of public assistance programs, so it can hire more staff and modernize systems.
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Although difficulty navigating the public benefits process isn’t necessarily new, Medicaid redetermination made these problems more glaring, said Jackie Semmens, a policy analyst at the Montana Budget and Policy Center, which signed the letter.
What started as a few organizations sharing their experiences organically grew to a much larger group.
“It spread out to a larger community of advocates, providers and social service groups who end up seeing the brunt of what happens when the state isn’t able to process benefits in a timely manner,” Semmens said. “I think if we had kept it open, it would have kept getting forwarded.
The letter suggests four major areas of investment: to increase options for in-person assistance; improve phone and website accessibility; increase critical agency personnel to support families; and improve communications with clients.
As part of the state’s widespread spending reductions in a 2017 special legislative session under then-Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, DPHHS was tasked with cutting $49 million. It laid off a slew of staff and closed 19 Offices of Public Assistance. The letter urges Gianforte to fund re-opening offices in areas without adequate services.
Fewer in-person offices put more pressure on community-based organizations like the ones that authored the letter. It also jammed up the telephone help line. Long wait times and inconsistent callback procedures became commonplace.
Charlie Brereton, director of DPHHS, acknowledged that a surge in call volumes during Medicaid redetermination has put more pressure on the help line at an interim budget meeting Thursday discussing the health department's finances.
“We are working to understand what we can do to improve (it) for the Montanans we serve moving forward,” he said. “We do have some proposals moving forward as part of the governor’s budget planning process.”
Spending on staffing would address a number of the barriers people face, according to the letter. It says that employing more people would reduce procedural delays and streamline application processes. Additionally, the letter’s authors believe that having more people on staff would allow the department to update its website and phone capabilities.
As of May 1, about 85% of the 2,805 full-time positions budgeted for DPHHS were filled, according to agency data.
“We just want to be clear that we know the staffers working on these issues are doing everything they can,” Semmens said. “We know it’s a matter of adequate funding, not that anyone wants to see people fall through the cracks.”
Gianforte’s office declined to comment, instead directing the Montana State News Bureau to the health department.
“The letter makes specific budget requests, and at this time, DPHHS is in the preliminary stages of the executive budget planning process for the upcoming legislative session,” said agency spokesperson Jon Ebelt. “DPHHS appreciates the feedback and suggestions included in the letter and will consider them.”