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Effective: June 1, 2010 |
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29.20ar1 - PARIS Interstate Match Program (Archive) |
Archived: June 1, 2011 |
Federal law requires states to use the Public Assistance Reporting Information System (PARIS) when determining Medicaid eligibility. State law requires that Minnesota use PARIS for:
l Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) including: Medical Assistance (MA), General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) and MinnesotaCare.
l Other public assistance programs including: Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), General Assistance (GA), Group Residential Housing (GRH), Minnesota Supplemental Assistance (MSA), Food Support (FS), Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), Diversionary Work Program (DWP), Work Benefit Program (WB) and Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA).
PARIS was initiated by the Qualifying Individuals (QI) Program Supplemental Funding Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-379).
Quarterly PARIS File Submissions.
PARIS is a federal and state partnership, administered by the Department of Health and Human Service's Administration for Children and Families (ACF). PARIS provides all fifty states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico with data to help them maintain program integrity and detect or deter improper payments.
PARIS has three components:
l an interstate match,
l a match against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA),
l a match against federal civilian and military wage and benefit payments.
The PARIS interstate match provides information on public assistance clients who may be receiving public assistance in more than one state. A PARIS interstate match may occur because of any of the following:
l client error.
Client error occurs when an individual receiving benefits in one state moves to another state and fails to report the move to program authorities.
l agency error.
Agency error occurs when an eligibility worker is informed that a client is moving, or has moved out of state and fails to update the program record.
l fraud.
PARIS may also help to detect client fraud that might not be detected through regular case maintenance activities.
Minnesota submits a file of public assistance clients to PARIS once per calendar quarter (February, May, August and November). DHS receives a response file from PARIS via MAXIS on the 10th of the month following the month of submission. Prior to notifying eligibility workers of PARIS matches, DHS filters out matches that are invalid due to discrepancies in date of birth, gender, and other criteria. DHS also separates the MMIS (MinnesotaCare) client matches for separate processing. DHS then communicates the match information to counties, tribal agencies and MinnesotaCare Operations in the month following the submission.
Quarterly PARIS File Submissions
DHS selects clients for inclusion in the quarterly file submission based on the following criteria:
n The client has a verified Social Security number. DHS does not send data about recipients whose Social Security number is not verified.
n The client is active on one or more of the following programs on the day the PARIS file is created:
m MA, Emergency Medical Assistance (EMA), Medical Assistance for Employed Persons with Disabilities (MA-EPD), and Medicare Savings Programs (MSP), GAMC, and MinnesotaCare.
m Other public assistance programs, including: MFIP, DWP, WB, GA, RCA, MSA, GRH, FS, and CCA.
n DHS excludes the following clients from the outgoing PARIS file sent to counties, tribal agencies and MinnesotaCare Operations:
m Clients who do not have a verified Social Security number.
m Clients with eligibility on MAXIS on the date the data file is created but set to close at the end of the month.
m Minnesota Family Planning Program only (MFPP) enrollees.
m Clients on privileged (PRIV) cases.
m Clients of Emergency Assistance (EA), Emergency General Assistance (EGA), and Emergency Minnesota Supplemental Assistance (EMSA) only.
Each state participating in the PARIS interstate match must provide a contact person for PARIS communication. A DHS staff person in the Program Assessment & Integrity Division (PAID) will serve as the Minnesota PARIS contact. The DHS PARIS contact phone number is (651) 431-3010.
The DHS staff person:
n Responds to other state requests to confirm a case status or actions taken on a Minnesota case.
n Works with county and tribal eligibility staff, MinnesotaCare Operations staff and other states to resolve issues regarding residency and eligibility for Minnesota public assistance programs.
n Works with Minnesota agencies and other state human services agencies to resolve and clear client matches that appear in multiple quarterly PARIS files.
n Assists county CCAP workers in the resolution of child care only PARIS matches.
n Serves as a resource to Minnesota eligibility workers.
n Evaluates the cost effectiveness and validity of the PARIS match process and procedures through data tracking and analysis.
When entering case notes regarding a PARIS match, start the case note with the word ”PARIS” for easy identification.