Dozens of Texas organizations are urging legislators to invest in overhauling the state’s enrollment system for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) next session.
More than 60 groups — including United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, Tarrant Area Food Bank and the Texas Hospital Association — wrote a letter in support of a Health and Human Services Commission state budget request for funds to improve processes and hire staff to address the state’s backlog of Medicaid and SNAP applications.
The letter states that the public-facing website Your Texas Benefits and the state's internal system, Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System (TIERS), are "unreliable" and "notoriously inefficient" for both Texans looking to enroll or renew, as well as state employees processing applications.
The delays “undermine the financial stability of Texas health care provider” and create “significant consequences for Texans,” the groups said.
“The system requires a growing number of HHSC enrollment staff to process applications,” the letter reads. “It creates long delays in implementing policy changes passed by the Legislature. The outdated technology leads to delays, backlogs, and other challenges with Medicaid applications for children, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and seniors.”
The federal government generally requires SNAP, or food stamp, applications be processed within 30 days. Agencies that process Medicaid requests must decide eligibility within 45 days for most applicants.
But the state has not consistently met federal guidelines for either since 2019, the state HHSC's budget request for the 2026-2027 legislative appropriations request. The HHSC requested about $300 million to meet federal timeliness standards for the two programs, as well as the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
As of Dec. 13, the HHSC took 63 days to process Medicaid/CHIP applications, and 99,902 applications were in the queue that were considered untimely, according to Thomas Vazquez, HHSC spokesperson. The queue for the week of Oct. 11 had over 190,000 applications, with processing time for applications at 97 days.
The HHSC cleared through SNAP applications that were awaiting processing for more than 30 days as of November, Vazquez added.
Federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have warned the state agency that it is out of compliance. The state has been under a corrective application plan from the USDA since 2020 for its failure to meet timeliness standards.
Vazquez said the commission is "taking all possible actions" to process applications and work with eligible Texans. Funding from the last legislative session in 2023 funded salary increases for eligibility workers and 642 staff positions to help with the Medicaid unwinding. The agency will maintain the staff positions to address outstanding applications.
The HHSC has also trained over 4,000 staff members to process applications that include SNAP and Medicaid and has onboarded more than 2,100 employees.
Diana Forester, health policy director for the nonprofit Texans Care for Children, said legislators should ensure children who are eligible to sign up can do so without delays.
“It’s time to bring this technology into the 21st century so the enrollment system actually works properly for Texas families,” Forester said in a news release Wednesday.
Other area organizations have highlighted the need for improved processes for SNAP and Medicaid.
Texas is one of five states that has not streamlined its SNAP reporting system, according to the North Texas Food Bank. The group recommends a simplified, technology-embracing 6-month eligibility check system. North Texas Food Bank estimates the change could save the state over $33 million a year.
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