3. Work Program

Under section 1902(xx)(2)(C) of the Act, an applicable individual demonstrates community engagement if the individual participates in a work program for not less than 80 hours in such month. Section 1902(xx)(9)(D) of the Act defines work program to have the meaning given such term in section 6(o)(1) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. Section 6(o)(1) in turn defines work program as: (1) a program under title I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA); (2) a program under section 236 of the Trade Act of 1974; (3) a program of employment and training operated or supervised by a State or political subdivision of a State that meets standards approved by the Governor of the State, including an employment and training program under subsection (d)(4) of section 6 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, other than a supervised job search program or job search training program; (4) a program of employment and training for veterans operated by the U.S. Department of Labor or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and approved by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); and (5) a workforce partnership under subsection (d)(4)(N) of section 6 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. We incorporate this definition into our regulation at § 435.552(b) with one modification as described further in this section. We separately note that programs outside of these aforementioned work programs, such as those operated by health providers that do not qualify under the part of the definition related to programs operated or supervised by a State, are not included in this definition. Also, while some States partner with managed care plans to provide a range of supported employment services to individuals receiving home and community-based services under section 1915(c) waivers or as part of section 1915(i) State plan services, these Medicaid-covered employment services are different from work programs as defined at § 435.552(b) and do not independently satisfy the work program community engagement requirement. However, as discussed in section II.M. of this IFC, managed care plans can provide valuable services to help their enrollees meet community engagement obligations, such as referring managed care enrollees to qualified work programs.

We note that the definition at section 6(o)(1) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 includes a program of employment and training operated or supervised by a State or political subdivision of a State that meets standards approved by the Governor of the State, including a program under subsection (d)(4) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) program), other than a supervised job search program or job search training program. However, limited supervised job search and job search training activities are allowable SNAP E&T program components for the purposes of fulfilling the time limit requirements. To align with SNAP regulations at 7 CFR 273.24(a)(3)(iii) , we will permit a program of employment and training that meets the definition of work program under § 435.552(b) to include supervised job search or job search training as a subsidiary activity, as long as the job search activity is less than half of the required hours. We recognize that there are employment and training programs that may require or include some job search activity, such as resume writing or mock interviews. However, we want to make sure that the supervised job search or job search activity is not the primary component of the employment and training program because we believe that the focus ( printed page 33357) should be on obtaining skills to enable long-term self-sufficiency. [ 31 ]

Also, we have received questions regarding whether job search activities that are conducted to receive unemployment insurance will count toward meeting the community engagement requirement. If the unemployment insurance job search activities are conducted in a manner that is consistent with the requirements of the work program, then they will count towards meeting the community engagement requirement. We encourage States to work with their State workforce agencies to establish data sharing and align job search activities and requirements.

We recognize the work programs under section 1902(xx)(9)(D) of the Act include SNAP E&T programs, as provided under subsection (d)(4) of section 6 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 and implementing regulations at 7 CFR 273.24(3)(iii) and 273.7(d) and (e) . Since the work program requirements that we are adopting here align with those in SNAP under section 6 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, the same operational requirements for States' SNAP E&T programs would apply for purposes of the Medicaid community engagement requirement, such as SNAP State agencies being responsible for referring eligible SNAP participants to SNAP E&T services and submitting an annual SNAP E&T plan to FNS.

We are not requiring States to establish new work programs but are also not prohibiting States from doing so. We also do not have the authority to change oversight or operational requirements for existing work programs meeting the definition at 1902(xx)(9)(D). States must, however, provide information about work programs that meet these requirements as part of the outreach sent to certain individuals about how to comply with the community engagement requirement that is required under section 1902(xx)(8)(A)(i) of the Act and as discussed in section II.L. of this IFC.

States will need to verify work program activities and hours. Information about verification is discussed in section II.I.6.c. of this IFC.