Chair Lee on HRA collaboration for SNAP and Medicaid enrollment
Lee asks about DOHMH's collaboration with HRA/DSS on benefit enrollment. Martin describes the interagency task force with Commissioner Dalton and efforts to leverage place-based work to enroll people in SNAP, WIC, and other programs at DOHMH facilities.
And just really quickly, going back to your testimony, because I know that you were talking about connecting families to SNAP, WIC, EITC, enrolling New Yorkers in Medicaid, keeping them covered.
Yesterday we just had a long hearing with HRA, and so just wondering if you could speak a little bit about what the conversations are or collaboration, partnership with HRA in that.
And then I had a second part to that question once you...
Yeah, no, we love our colleagues and our co-agency partners at DSS.
I meet regularly with Commissioner Aaron Dalton.
We have an interagency task force on this very issue that brings together some of the
senior leaders in our agency and in their agency, and we are working this problem together.
We're trying to identify what are the ways that we can leverage the place-based nature of our work.
You know, we see hundreds of thousands of people in our clinics, in our vital records shop,
in our neighborhood action centers.
So the question becomes, while people are in those facilities and they're waiting, can't we do more?
Can't we enroll them in some of these programs?
And so we're trying to work on that at the health department to step up and to really lean in there.
We're grateful to have DSS there to have our back as we develop this new muscle.
Okay.