{"id":432751,"date":"2026-09-11T11:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/432751\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T11:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:40:12","slug":"texas-health-agency-asks-lawmakers-for-additional-funding-to-address-growing-medicaid-snap-backlogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/432751\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas health agency asks lawmakers for additional funding to address growing Medicaid, SNAP backlogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, or HHSC, asked state lawmakers for additional funding to address a growing backlog of applications<\/a> for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program<\/a>, or SNAP, and Medicaid.<\/p>\n

As of late August<\/a>, more than 210,000 Texans are waiting for their Medicaid application to be processed \u2013 and more than 150,000 are waiting for an eligibility worker to review their SNAP application. Last week, HHSC submitted its budget request to the state<\/a> legislature asking for funding to make more than 640 temporary eligibility workers permanent employees.<\/p>\n

Diana Forester, director of health policy at the advocacy organization Texans Care for Children, said the positions are set to expire at the end of the current fiscal year, meaning the state could lose hundreds of workers by August 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout these workers, I don\u2019t see a way for them to be able to get through [the backlog] in any kind of meaningful way, which means people don\u2019t have insurance that they\u2019re eligible for,\u201d she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have access to food through SNAP that they are eligible for. It just means that families are stuck waiting too long for healthcare and food.\u201d<\/p>\n

HHSC did not respond to KERA\u2019s request for comment prior to publication.<\/p>\n

In its legislative appropriations request submitted last Friday, the agency said there has been a significant increase in \u201celigibility actions\u201d since 2017, and it needs more resources to meet state and federal timeliness standards.<\/p>\n

The 642 temporary positions were approved for the past two state budget cycles to deal with the increased workload that followed the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, when the state had to review more than four million enrollees within a year \u2013 known as the Medicaid unwinding.<\/p>\n

HHSC said application volume has decreased since the end of the public health emergency, but the workload for eligibility workers hasn\u2019t returned to pre-public health emergency levels. The agency said there\u2019s been an increase of more than 16% in application volume across all programs.<\/p>\n

Despite the increase, HHSC said in its request that staffing for eligibility has grown by only about 10% since 2019 \u2013 a result of the temporary workers provided by the state in 2023.<\/p>\n

Forester said she\u2019s worried about what would happen if HHSC isn\u2019t able to convert those jobs into permanent positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about temporary positions is if you have people leave those positions and there\u2019s only a few months left, are you going to repost for them?\u201d she said. \u201cThen, are people going to apply for temporary jobs or are they going to be more tempted to do something that\u2019s permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n

HHSC has been able to utilize temporary overtime to work through extreme backlogs, according to Forester, who worked at the agency for more than a decade before starting at Texans Care for Children.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s not sustainable,\u201d she said. \u201cYou actually need people that are trained and know how to work these applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forester said Texas\u2019 eligibility technology system is outdated \u2013 something the agency is already working to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the short-term \u2013 the next like eight years \u2013 we have to work with what we have, which is these very manual heavy systems,\u201d Forester said. \u201cThe only way to really work through a backlog is just to have more workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

HHSC prepares for higher SNAP costs in request<\/p>\n

Texas has been preparing for significant changes to SNAP funding since the federal tax and spending<\/a> bill was signed into law<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n

The bill lowered the federal government\u2019s contribution to cover the administrative costs of the program from 50% to just 25%. That makes Texas responsible for an additional $117 million<\/a> annually, according to state officials.<\/p>\n

Forester said state officials and lawmakers already knew HHSC was going to have to make this request.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be watching to see which source of funding the legislature uses to pay the state\u2019s share,\u201d Forester said. \u201cFortunately, the state revenue continues to come in really strongly and the state has a huge rainy-day fund. The legislature has different ways it can pay for this cost share. It\u2019s just a matter of which pool of money they\u2019re going to pull from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal lawmakers also approved changes to the SNAP program that would make states responsible for covering a percentage of the benefits costs of the program based on payment error rates.<\/p>\n

Texas could be responsible for covering more than $700 million in benefits costs if it doesn\u2019t improve the accuracy of its program. In order to avoid paying for part of the program, Texas would need an accuracy rate of 94%, but in fiscal year 2025, the state\u2019s rate was 91%.
HHSC said its SNAP payment accuracy hasn\u2019t met federal standards since 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal policy changes to shift SNAP benefit costs to states puts even more emphasis on the need for tenured staff and maintaining timely work,\u201d the agency said in its request.<\/p>\n

Forester said there wasn\u2019t a placeholder for the potential cost associated with Texas\u2019 error rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know the final number year, but that was interesting that it\u2019s not a specific ask,\u201d she said. \u201cHHSC has done a really good job in interim hearings articulating that this is going to be something the state has to pay and educating lawmakers about this \u2013 like showing them the potential, what we expect could be our payment error rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The additional cost wouldn\u2019t go into effect until next fiscal year, which Forester said means it needs to be considered as part of the budget lawmakers will be working on in 2027.<\/p>\n

She said advocates are keeping a close eye on how the state chooses to address it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought since it was a known expected cost, it might be articulated somewhere in there,\u201d Forester said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think it\u2019s alarming yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abigail Ruhman is KERA\u2019s health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at\u00a0aruhman@kera.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider\u00a0making a tax-deductible gift today<\/a>. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, or HHSC, asked state lawmakers for additional funding to address a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-432751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}