Guidelines are provided below to reduce the interview requirements for initial Medicaid applications in an effort to reduce the workload and to provide county offices with more flexibility:

¨      If an individual applies for Medicaid and is already a recipient of Food Stamps, TEA or another category of Medicaid, or if the applicant has had an active Medicaid case within the past year, no additional interview will be required.  The county office will determine if an interview is needed on a case by case basis.  If an interview is needed to resolve questionable information, the county may choose to do a telephone or face-to-face interview.

¨      If the applicant is not a current recipient, or has not received Medicaid in the past year, an interview will be required.  The county will determine whether a telephone or face-to-face interview will be needed.

Ø      If the applicant does not have a telephone number listed on the application, an appointment notice will be sent to the applicant providing the option of a telephone interview.

Ø      If a telephone number is shown on the application, the applicant will be contacted by phone.  If the worker is unable to contact the applicant by phone within a week, a written appointment notice will be sent.

¨      If the applicant submits a DCO-215 for Medicaid only, the county must conduct a face-to-face or telephone interview to obtain the information needed to make a determination.  If a telephone interview is done, the Client Declaration must be mailed to the applicant, signed and returned to the county office before the application can be approved.

¨      For initial applications for PWs, the necessity of an interview will be left to the caseworker's discretion based on the information provided and the information needed to make a determination.

¨      For cases needing an MRT decision, a blank DCO-108, Social Report, may be sent to the client or representative for completion and mailed in with the application.  The caseworker will review the form for completeness and follow up with a telephone or in-person interview if necessary to make sure all of the needed information is included.  If the information is not legible or is incomplete, the caseworker will transfer the information to a new DCO-108.