East Central Reporter

Members of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services met Tuesday, April 19.

Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services provides health care coverage for adults and children who qualify for Medicaid and Medicare. Provides child support enforcement services to ensure that Illinois children receive financial support from both parents.

Here are the meeting minutes as provided by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services:

Child Support Advisory Committee Meeting April 19, 2016 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) By video conference and teleconference

Committee Members Present: Margaret Bennett, Scott Black, Shirley Williams for The Honorable Dorothy Brown (via phone), Mischelle Causey-Drake (via phone), Juanita Sanders for James Dimas (via phone), Geraldine Franco, Kirk Harris (via phone), Sequane Lawrence (via phone), The Honorable Judge Pamela Loza, The Honorable Sidney Mathias, Nicole McKinnon, Claude Robinson (via phone), Julio Rodriguez (via phone), Margaret Stapleton, Zeophus (Zee) Williams, The Honorable Judge Diane Winter (via phone), Richard Zuckerman (via phone)

Committee Members Absent: Darryl Apperton, The Honorable Patricia Bellock, The Honorable Kelly Burke, The Honorable La Shawn Ford, The Honorable Robert Martwick, The Honorable Cynthia Soto

HFS Staff Present: Pam Lowry, Gina Hemphill, Irene Curran, Norris Stevenson, Sharon Shapiro, Theresa Orozco, Ralph Abt, Roxy Schuman, Hillary Johns, Bridget Stone, Elizabeth Diaz-C, Mike Vespa, Mary Bartolomucci, Eppie Dietz and Ray Marchiori

Public Guests: Mick Gerhardt and Sheila Mannix

• Welcome to CSAC members - Pam Lowry Pam Lowry welcomed new and returning meeting participants. She extended a welcome from Director Norwood and thanked the members for their service on this committee. The statutory citation governing the committee was referenced. (See attached.) A brief introduction to the Committee for new members included: o The next quadrennial guidelines review is scheduled to occur in 2018. o Open meeting rules apply to the Committee. o Any decisions made by the Committee require a quorum. HFS staff members do not vote. o The bylaws of this Committee allow for participation by members both by video conference and by phone. o We generally do have three sites: phone, a videoconference site in Chicago and a videoconference site in Springfield. o We try to record the meetings; however we have had difficulty in the past that resulted in no recording. If the recording does not work we rely upon our notes. Question from a Committee Member: Can everyone be reminded of the rules regarding someone coming in your stead. Answer: The Committee has always allowed designees. If the Committee member has a designee, the designee has been allowed to vote for the member. Generally Committee Members advise HFS or the Chair that the member is going to be absent and that someone will be voting in her or his stead. In some instances, the Member has a long-standing designee.

• Remarks – Pam Lowry Meeting notes were unanimously approved.

• Nomination for New Chair – Pam Lowry/Committee Members The Honorable Judge Pamela Loza nominated Margaret Bennett as the new CSAC chair person. Zeophus Williams seconded the nomination. No other nominations were brought forward. Voting was unanimous. Margaret accepted the Chair and thanked the Committee.

• CSAC Quarterly Numbers – Pam Lowry Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, Division of Child Support Services provides these numbers quarterly for review. The numbers are trending slightly upward but overall variation is minor. Paternity establishment numbers cannot be reported until the end of the year. In response to a question from a Member, the five key federal performance metrics were articulated:

1. Paternity establishment percentage 2. Cost Efficiency ratio 3. Percentage of cases that have an order for support 4. Percentage of current collections 5. Arrears debt percentage

For the paternity establishment percentage, states have to perform at 90% or above. If performance falls below 90%, states have one year to bring the performance back to the expected level. In 2014, we were 1% under. In 2015, we achieved 90%. Generally, we measure ourselves against past performance and the nation. Our performance is consistent with the national benchmarks. The self-assessment for the year was met.

In response to discussion about the need for quarterly paternity numbers, HFS agrees that despite the lag time issues a better way to measure quarterly performance is a valid request. HFS committed to re-evaluating the quarterly paternity data.

• Workgroup Reports – Margaret Bennett

1. Guidelines Outreach Workgroup: Margaret Bennett, Richard Zuckerman, Zee

Williams, and Sidney Mathias. HB 3892 - Income Shares - was passed out of the House and is on the way to the Senate. Representative Burke has worked very hard on the Bill. Margaret and Judge Loza have given a number of presentations. Some of the bar associations have jumped on board as well as HFS. Judge Loza thanks Pam Lowry for being there as a presenter and being so well prepared. There was discussion about possible effective date and about creation of an on- line calculator. 2. Process Improvement related to legal referrals: Zee Williams. There have been meetings with the states attorney’s office and HFS staff to increase the number of legal action referrals that are received from HFS as well as increasing the number of legal action referrals that are filed.

3. Responsible Fatherhood and Practices that acknowledge Inability to pay:

Margret Stapleton, Sequane Lawrence, Geraldine Franco. Sequane Lawrence recommends that Kirk Harris be added to the group because of his deep involvement. Margret Stapleton stated that they are working on SB 2340 with Senator Lightford. This bill would increase the amount of child support passed through and disregarded for TANF families from up to $50.00 per month for all families to up to $100 for families with one child and up to $200 for families with 2 or more children.

• New Business – Committee Members

? A question was raised about the process for collecting support from unemployment insurance benefits. HFS staff explained the automated exchange of information with IDES that allows for collection. ? A question was raised as to the current budget situation affecting child support? HFS staff explained that child support disbursements were not appropriated, and therefore the lack of appropriation authority did not affect child support payments. ? A question was raised as to HFS’ use of the administrative process to establish support. There was a clarification to make the question more specifically about use of the administrative process to issue default orders. HFS staff explained that it is a general preference to route a case that may result in a default order through the courts. Other cases are more suited for administrative processing.

**Ray Marchiori, HFS/ DCSS Chief of Staff joined the meeting at our Springfield location. Pam introduced Ray and thanked him for joining us. Ray thanked Pam, returning members and new members for the important work they do on the committee. He is looking forward to future work of the committee.

• Public Comment – Members of the Public One member of the public asked about the notation about a historical quarter that indicated an interface error. It was clarified that this would be accepted as a comment. That member of the public also stated that she found it disconcerting that no one on the Committee had discussed the King v. Patla filing in the committee meetings. No other public comments were made.

• Closing It was mentioned that we are one meeting short for the year and that we need to address the CSAC schedule for the remainder of 2016. Once dates have been decided, the new schedule will be posted on line. A thank you was extended to all committee members and attendees. Motion to adjourn was offered and approved.

• Meeting Adjourned