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Attached is PB 06-133 ELI. This new PB purports to just change the closing code for failing to comply with a medical assessment from WMS code N17 to W11.
"The purpose of this policy bulletin is to inform Job Center staff that code N17 is no longer used to close/reject a case where the case head or legally responsible adult failed to comply with a medical assessment. When an individual who is the head of household fails to comply with a medical appointment/assessment, the household is deemed ineligible for public assistance. In the case of a two-parent household, if either parent claims a medical exemption and fails to comply with WeCARE, the PA case should be closed. In these instances, the Worker must initiate a case closing using public assistance (PA Closing/Reject) code W11 (Failure to Keep Appointment for DSS Medical)."
This PB raises a lot of red flags. The WeCARE Policy Directive (05-07-ELI) says there are two possibilities when a client fails to go to the initial WeCARE medical exam: either NYCWAY code 468B for failure to report or 469K for failure to comply. (see attachment A of the PD 05-07 - with lists of WeCARE codes) When a client does not show, a vendor is supposed to enter code 468B or 469K. Then the WeCARE vendors are supposed to do outreach to the client to find out why they did not come to the appt. If outreach is not successful by expiration of the future action date in the system, the FTC or FTR auto posts. But this new bulletin mentions none of that, and if as the WeCARE PD suggests, the FTC or FTR autoposts, why does a worker have to enter codes at all - as this new policy directive says they do? Also, the new bulletin seems to admit that by definition, all of the notices on this are bad. PB 06-133 at page 2 says:
"The Welfare Management System (WMS) will generate the appropriate Client Notice System (CNS) notice containing the law(s) and regulation(s) that support the Agency's action. The notice will state that the participant failed to keep an appointment with the doctor the Agency referred him/her to (e.g., Failed to Report [FTR] to initial appointment) but will not indicate the area of infraction (e.g., Failed to Comply [FTC] with specialty exam, etc.). The area of infraction can be determined by the FTR/FTC action code entered in NYCWAY." (emphasis added)
So, the notice generated will not say what type of appt the client missed. The worker can look it up on NYCWAY, but does not have to tell the client on the notice - and does not seem to be required to look it up!
Finally, the bad PB says it replaces PB 01-30. Does anyone have that? It would be good to check it out.
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