The Ohio Benefits User Experience Study
Executive Summary
The Ohio Benefits User Experience Study was a joint collaboration between The Center for Community Solutions, Northern Ohioans for Budget Legislation Equality, Contact Center and Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services, to document and elevate the perspectives of Ohioans enrolled in public benefits. This study team interviewed 156 individuals in 10 counties who applied or reenrolled in Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) between mid-2018 and mid-2020. While not meant to be representative of all benefit recipients in Ohio, this study offers important insights for Ohio policymakers and state agency administrators to consider when making new investments in the Ohio Benefits eligibility system. The individuals who access public benefits are the Ohio Benefits system’s most important stakeholders and their recommendations for improvement should be prioritized.
The individuals who access public benefits are the Ohio Benefits system’s most important stakeholders and their recommendations for improvement should be prioritized.
Findings
The majority of survey respondents were satisfied with their most recent enrollment experience through their County Job and Family Services (CJFS) offices. Overall, 76 percent of respondents had a positive or neutral experience with their CJFS office.
The majority of survey respondents were satisfied with their most recent enrollment experience through their County Job and Family Services (CJFS) offices. Overall, 76 percent of respondents had a positive or neutral experience with their CJFS office.
The Ohio Benefits Self-Service Portal is not meeting the needs of survey respondents. The online system is not mobile friendly, it is difficult to navigate, and is riddled with system errors. Despite long wait times, the phone enrollment process works better for many Ohioans.
Survey respondents want CJFS to use multiple communication channels to share information and instructions. Mailed notices are appreciated, but hard to understand. Some survey respondents would also like to receive text and email notifications, since mail delivery can be unreliable.
Families experience hardship while waiting for benefits. Survey respondents would like to see CJFS offices do more to shorten the time period between application submission and approval and minimize periods of disenrollment due to administrative barriers.
Documentation requirements are a significant challenge. Some survey respondents struggle to identify and submit the correct paperwork, especially since pandemic-related closures have restricted access to publicly available copy and fax machines. A mobile app that captures photographs of required documents would dramatically simplify the enrollment process.
Recommendations
Several policy and process changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as postponed recertifications for SNAP and Medicaid, resulted in meaningful improvements for customers and should be continued for as long as possible.[1] As this User Experience Survey demonstrates, significant system changes are also needed. New investments in the Ohio Benefits system should be responsive to needs and priorities identified by customers, not vendors. Ohio should not continue to invest in an online system that low-income Ohioans cannot easily access.
Improve the Ohio Benefits Self-Service Portal using human-centered design principles. Ohio policymakers and agency administrators should hold technology vendors accountable to usability standards to ensure Ohioans have access to a high-quality, mobile-friendly and user-friendly website and online application platform that includes the ability to submit pictures of required documents.
Redesign benefit notices to improve readability. Simplify the language used in notices, create more white space, and provide the most important information up front. Partner with literacy experts and benefits recipients to ensure readability and comprehension.
Restore funding for a statewide benefits navigator program. Community-based application assisters are critically important to ensure vulnerable Ohioans can access the public benefits that help stabilize their lives. The loss of benefits navigators, through state and federal budget cuts in 2017 and 2018, left many Ohioans to navigate the complicated benefits enrollment process alone. Ohio policymakers should reinvest in a community-based benefits navigator network, especially to support English language learners, individuals with disabilities, rural areas and communities of color. In addition to providing funding, Ohio should build a portal into Ohio Benefits for community-based application assisters.
Redesign county workflows to process benefit applications faster. Although federal regulations generally allow for 30 and 45-day processing timeframes for most SNAP and Medicaid applications, Ohioans endure hardship while waiting for benefit applications to be processed. Ohio should improve SNAP application timeliness for households eligible for expedited service, and follow the example of other states that have redesigned their business processes to provide same-day service.
Improve customer service and reduce wait times. To ensure high quality customer service across Ohio, all call center interactions should be recorded and monitored. To maintain reasonable wait times for customers, Ohio must adequately fund and staff CJFS offices and adopt long-term policy changes to streamline renewals, which take up the vast majority of CJFS staff time.
The loss of benefits navigators, through state and federal budget cuts in 2017 and 2018, left many Ohioans to navigate the complicated benefits enrollment process alone.
Beyond these specific recommendations, a central goal of the Ohio Benefits User Experience Study is to motivate state and county agency administrators to proactively seek out customer feedback and recommendations on the benefits enrollment experience as part of a practice of continuous improvement. The study team hopes this report provides inspiration and a model for interested leaders and stands ready to participate in future efforts.