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Quality Control (QC)

Quality Control (QC) Questions & Answers

Quality Control (QC) performs audits on households who have applied for, received or have been denied benefits for Nutrition Assistance (NA) under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  FAA administers the program for the State of Arizona. QC performs the following types of audits:

  • QC case reviews are conducted to establish the states accuracy in administering NA benefits.
  • Non QC case reviews are conducted to assist the Family Assistance Administration (FAA) in identifying deficiency trends with NA benefits.  

QC Case Reviews

QC case reviews enable Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to monitor the State agency's compliance with the SNAP requirements.   A review of both active (cases in which an allotment was issued for a specified month) and negative (cases that were denied, closed or suspended) actions taken by the state are reviewed by QC staff.    

Who is selected for a QC audit?

Households that have applied for, received or have been denied NA benefits may be randomly selected for an audit.

What is the QC audit process?

The audit involves analyzing, verifying and comparing information gathered from the household during the QC interview, the case file prepared by FAA, and verification obtained by QC from other sources. FAA is provided a report of findings in addition to related statistical reports used for program improvement.

Why is the QC interview required?

Federal regulations require that a face to face interview be conducted in cases where an allotment of more than $100.00 is issued. The interview does not need to be completed in the home; arrangements can be made for an alternate location.

What if a household does not cooperate?

The household will not be eligible for NA benefits until they cooperate with the QC process. OPE communicates with FAA to ensure NA benefits are held or issued depending on a participant's compliance status.

How are accuracy and integrity ensured?

FNS randomly selects a sub-sample of QC case reviews each month for review. FNS ensures that State Quality Control is meeting federal standards. Failure to meet standards set by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) - FNS may result in a penalty sanction charged against the state.

Non QC Case Reviews

OPE conducts non QC case reviews on Nutrition Assistance cases (actives and negatives) completed by FAA local offices.

  • Targeted criteria areas are reviewed based on the high error elements identified in the QC case reviews.
  • Non QC case reviews identified with deficiencies are forwarded to the FAA local offices for corrections.
  • OPE staff monitor completed non QC case reviews to ensure the corrections are completed by FAA.

What is the purpose of the Non QC Case Reviews?

The purpose of conducting non QC case reviews is twofold:

It provides an additional review of the case to ensure the applicant receives the benefits that they are entitled based on their household circumstances.
It allows the state agency (FAA) an opportunity to correctly address identified discrepancies for ongoing months; thereby preventing over issuances or underpayments.

In conclusion, the above actions taken will increase the state's accuracy rate in the event the case is sub-sampled for a QC case review.  All of the SNAP cases are subject to being selected in the QC sample process each month, regardless if the case has previously been sampled.

 

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