ACCESSNebraska’s timeliness in processing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applications has earned them a ranking of 32nd nationally out of 53.
Doug Weinberg is the Director of Children and Family Services for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
He says as recently as 2013, ACCESSNebraska ranked 52nd out of 53 federal jurisdictions.
Weinberg says in the last six months, staff have really tried to focus on process improvement, finding ways to introduce program enhancements and making operational improvements to try and speed up the SNAP application processing time.
"Part of it was just the way we handled mail. Now we go to the post office at 3 a.m. to pick up mail so all the mail is distributed and ready to go when our workers show up. Previously, mail would be delivered midday so it was late in the day before they got the current day’s mail so most of it didn’t get addressed till the following day, so just little changes like that.”
Weinberg says cutting a day out of the processing time has made a significant difference.
He says ACCESSNebraska has also improved communications with its clients and is working on sending clients emails when new information is posted in their account.
Weinberg says ACCESSNebraska is also working on a cell phone app which they think will be well-received by their clients.