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ACCESSNebraska Marks 10-Year Anniversary
Nebraska Ag Connection - 10/15/2018

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) rolled out ACCESSNebraska 10 years ago. It started with a website for Nebraskans to apply for Medicaid and Economic Assistance services and has grown into a comprehensive, multi-platform tool that has become a key component in the agency's effort to help people live better lives.

"ACCESSNebraska has become an effective and efficient way for DHHS to ensure client centered service delivery," said Matthew Wallen, DHHS Division of Children and Family Services Director. "The successes of recent years demonstrate a constant commitment to excellence on behalf of the team behind ACCESSNebraska."

More than 2.5 million applications have come through the ACCESSNebraska website since the kickoff. In August, nearly 18,000 applications were submitted through the website for Medicaid and Economic Assistance. ACCESSNebraska was initially created to provide accessibility to Nebraska residents and to improve customer service.

"Our Eligibility Operations team provides client assistance on-line, via telephone and in person at 50 local offices," according to Wallen. "ACCESSNebraska has enabled us to meet the needs of Nebraskans when they need it most."

ACCESSNebraska team members directly assist underserved populations at Open Door Mission, Siena Francis House Homeless Shelter and other partner locations, as well. Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach awarded ACCESSNebraska the 2018 Compassion in Action award and Food Bank for the Heartland promotes ACCESSNebraska as an agency collaboration model for food banks across the country.

Key performance metrics that illustrate the programs' successes are available on the ACCESSNebraska website.

"Call wait times for Economic Assistance and Medicaid have been under five minutes for 20 months running, SNAP application processing timeliness has been at 96% or better for 31 months and in August, 99% of SNAP cases were processed in a timely manner," said Wallen.

Other key statistics:

- 65% of program applicants use the ACCESSNebraska website

- 25% apply via telephone

- 10% send applications through the U.S. mail

- 80% of website applicants use a personal computer at home, work or elsewhere

- 48% of applications received for Economic Assistance in March were processed the same day

- Email notifications save the program an estimated $6600/month in postage

"Going forward, we're making the website more mobile friendly and developing a text platform to streamline notifications," said Wallen. "We're also creating a client satisfaction survey on the website to better measure outcomes and to help ACCESSNebraska preserve and strengthen families for the next ten years."

The ACCESS Nebraska website can be found at www.accessnebraska.ne.gov.


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