Report on Paperless Documentation February 2018 Department of Transitional Assistance Mission The mission of the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) is to assist and empower individuals and families to meet their basic needs, improve their quality of life, and achieve long-term economic self-sufficiency. DTA offers a comprehensive system of programs and supports to achieve this mission, including food and nutritional assistance, economic assistance, and employment supports. DTA serves one out of every eight people in the Commonwealth including working families, children, elders, and people with disabilities. Description of the Report Chapter 158 of the Acts of 2014 Section 32 requires DTA to develop, implement, and maintain a plan to reduce the use of paper records and documentation and to eliminate the sole reliance on paper records for its operations. The plan must progressively eliminate the need to use hard copies of forms. Progress in meeting these requirements is hereby submitted to the clerks of the House of Representatives and the Senate. DTA’s Paper Reduction Efforts DTA partnered with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and MassHealth to implement an Electronic Document Management Center (EDMC) located in Taunton, Massachusetts. EDMC was envisioned as the backbone of DTA’s paper reduction efforts and was designed to manage applicant and client eligibility documents, as well as documents used by DTA’s hearings and program integrity units. The goal of the EDMC was to improve client case processing by providing streamlined, accurate and timely indexed case files that could be readily accessed by DTA caseworkers throughout the state. Since January 2014, major phases of the EDMC implementation included: Re-routing all DTA local office physical mail to the EDMC for digital scanning and indexing; Scanning new client documents and applications received by local offices directly to the EDMC; Scanning existing documents on file within DTA’s local offices so they could be indexed and available electronically by caseworkers in any local office; and Installing scanning devices in DTA local office waiting rooms so clients could efficiently and scan their own documents into the EDMC. “self-serve” Additionally, in 2017 DTA launched new functionality on its DTA Connect mobile application that allows clients to submit documents to the EDMC through the mobile app by merely taking a photo of the document they are submitting.
Report on Paperless Documentation February 2018 Department of Transitional Assistance Mission The mission of the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) is to assist and empower individuals and families to meet their basic needs, improve their quality of life, and achieve long-term economic self-sufficiency. DTA offers a comprehensive system of programs and supports to achieve this mission, including food and nutritional assistance, economic assistance, and employment supports. DTA serves one out of every eight people in the Commonwealth including working families, children, elders, and people with disabilities. Description of the Report Chapter 158 of the Acts of 2014 Section 32 requires DTA to develop, implement, and maintain a plan to reduce the use of paper records and documentation and to eliminate the sole reliance on paper records for its operations. The plan must progressively eliminate the need to use hard copies of forms. Progress in meeting these requirements is hereby submitted to the clerks of the House of Representatives and the Senate. DTA’s Paper Reduction Efforts DTA partnered with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and MassHealth to implement an Electronic Document Management Center (EDMC) located in Taunton, Massachusetts. EDMC was envisioned as the backbone of DTA’s paper reduction efforts and was designed to manage applicant and client eligibility documents, as well as documents used by DTA’s hearings and program integrity units. The goal of the EDMC was to improve client case processing by providing streamlined, accurate and timely indexed case files that could be readily accessed by DTA caseworkers throughout the state. Since January 2014, major phases of the EDMC implementation included: Re-routing all DTA local office physical mail to the EDMC for digital scanning and indexing; Scanning new client documents and applications received by local offices directly to the EDMC; Scanning existing documents on file within DTA’s local offices so they could be indexed and available electronically by caseworkers in any local office; and Installing scanning devices in DTA local office waiting rooms so clients could efficiently “self-serve” and scan their own documents into the EDMC. Additionally, in 2017 DTA launched new functionality on its DTA Connect mobile application that allows clients to submit documents to the EDMC through the mobile app by merely taking a photo of the document they are submitting.