N.Y. Social Services Law § 139-a: Special provisions to avoid abuse of assistance and care

§ 139-a. Special provisions to avoid abuse of assistance and care. 1.

Any person who shall apply for safety net assistance or family

assistance within one year after arrival in this state, shall be

presumed to have come into the state for the purpose of receiving public

assistance or care and the social services official where application is

made, shall deny public assistance and care to such applicant unless

such applicant shall establish by clear and convincing proof that the

purpose of his or her entry was not for the purpose of securing public

assistance and care in this state. In addition to complying with the

foregoing provisions, the applicant shall also submit with his or her

application a certificate from the appropriate local employment office

of the state department of labor issued within a two week period from

the date of his or her application stating that such employment office

has no order for an opening in part-time, full-time, temporary or

permanent work of any kind to which the applicant could properly be

referred by such office, taking into consideration only his or her

physical and mental capacity without reference to his or her customary

occupation or acquired skill.

2. The social services official shall in every case complete his

investigation and make his determination of the application under this

section not more than thirty days after receipt of the application.

3. (a) The social services districts of Allegany, Broome, Dutchess,

Niagara, Onondaga, Oneida, Orange, Oswego, Rensselaer, Rockland,

Steuben, and Suffolk shall authorize and implement demonstration

projects for the purposes of determining the cost-effectiveness of

preventing multiple enrollment of home relief benefit recipients through

the use of an automated two-digit finger imaging matching identification

system. The system shall only include home relief benefit recipient

finger imaging upon application for eligibility for such benefits and

finger imaging of home relief recipients currently receiving home relief

benefits.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of section one hundred thirty-six

of this article or any other provision of law, data collected and

maintained through the use of an automated finger imaging matching

identification system as authorized by this subdivision may not be used,

disclosed or redisclosed for any purpose other than the prevention of

multiple enrollments in home relief, may not be used or admitted in any

criminal or civil investigation, prosecution, or proceeding, other than

a civil proceeding pursuant to section one hundred forty-five-c of this

article, and may not be disclosed in response to a subpoena or other

compulsory legal process or warrant, or upon request or order of any

agency, authority, division, office or other private or public entity or

person, except that nothing contained herein shall prohibit disclosure

in response to a subpoena issued by or on behalf of the applicant or

recipient who is the subject of the record maintained as a part of such

system. Any person who knowingly makes or obtains any unauthorized

disclosure of data collected and maintained through the use of an

automated two-digit finger imaging matching identification system shall

be guilty of a class A misdemeanor, and shall be punished in accordance

with the provisions of the penal law.

(c) Data collected and maintained on the automated two-digit finger

imaging matching identification system shall be subject to those

provisions relating to unauthorized disclosure of confidential client

information currently subject to part 357 of the commissioner's

regulations.

(d) Such social services districts shall develop a competitive request

for proposal for an automated two-digit finger imaging matching

identification system, and shall thereafter contract for the services of

a firm certified by the department as able to design and implement such

automated two-digit finger imaging matching identification system. The

department shall oversee the process by which districts select and award

contracts for the demonstration projects. Prior to the implementation of

any contracts, the department shall certify that a system exists for

data collection and for destroying and expunging a recipient finger

image upon such recipient ceasing to be a home relief recipient and that

the design of the demonstration project fulfills all the requirements of

this section. The department shall provide such assistance as needed to

facilitate finger image matching among social services districts

including centralized sharing of data when local matching among social

services districts is not feasible. After award the department shall be

responsible for ensuring that the demonstration projects are carried out

in accordance with the requirements of this section, that adequate

training for local district staff involved with the project will be

provided and taking any actions necessary to bring such programs into

compliance if required. Such contractual arrangement shall ensure that

state payments for the contractor's necessary and legitimate expenses

for the administration of such program are limited to amounts specified

in advance and that such amounts shall not exceed the amount

appropriated therefor in any fiscal years.

(e) Immediate notice of all the provisions of this subdivision shall

be provided to home relief recipients or applicants.

(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, nothing contained

herein shall be deemed to authorize or permit the termination,

suspension, or diminution of home relief benefits except as elsewhere

specifically authorized in this chapter, provided, however, that where

the basis of a proposed sanction is a determination of a fraudulent

multiple enrollment based on the use of an automated finger imaging

matching identification system authorized pursuant to this section, no

such sanction shall be imposed pending a hearing conducted pursuant to

section twenty-two of this chapter within forty-five days of the

notification of the applicant or recipient of the alleged fraudulent

multiple enrollment, or pending a final determination of a request by an

applicant or a recipient for correction or amendment of a record

pursuant to section ninety-five of the public officers law, and no such

sanction shall be imposed unless the local social services district has

verified the results of the automated finger imaging matching

identification system by means of a manual match conducted by a person

who is qualified to perform such identifications.

(g) The department shall conduct periodic audits to monitor compliance

with all laws and regulations regarding the automated finger imaging

matching system to insure that any records maintained as part of such

system are accurate and complete, that no illegal disclosures of such

records have taken place, that effective software and hardware designs

have been instituted with security features to prevent unauthorized

access to such records, that access to record information system

facilities, systems operating environments, data file contents whether

while in use or when stored in a media library is restricted to

authorized personnel only, that operation programs are used that will

prohibit inquiry, record updates, or destruction of records, from any

terminal other than automated finger imaging matching system terminals

which are so designated, that operational programs are used to detect

and store for the output of designated department employees all

unauthorized attempts to penetrate any automated finger imaging matching

system, program or file, that adequate and timely procedures exist to

insure that the recipient or applicant's right to access and review of

records for the purpose of accuracy and completeness, including

procedures for review of information maintained about such individuals

and for administrative review (including procedures for administrative

appeal) and necessary correction of any claim by the individual to whom

the information relates that the information is inaccurate or

incomplete.

(h) The department shall report to the speaker of the assembly and the

temporary president of the senate on the operation of the demonstration

project by March first, nineteen hundred ninety-six. This report shall

include analysis of the cost-effectiveness of such project, and shall

include information concerning instances of multiple enrollment detected

through use of this system, and shall include a detailed summary of the

results of audits required by paragraph (g) of this subdivision. The

report shall include recommendations regarding whether the program

should be discontinued, expanded, or otherwise modified.

(i) The department of social services shall contract with an

independent academic or research organization (the "contractor")

experienced in evaluating public assistance programs for a comprehensive

evaluation of the automated finger imaging matching identification

system authorized in this section. The results of such evaluation shall

be set forth in a report which shall include, but not be limited to the

following:

(1) a description of the demonstration project, its implementation

schedule and the problems encountered in implementation;

(2) investigations of each instance where a recipient does not respond

to a notice informing the recipient of the need to submit to finger

imaging. Such investigation shall determine, to the extent possible, why

the recipient did not respond and whether such failure to respond was

due to the recipient: (a) becoming eligible for federal supplemental

security income benefits, if any; (b) no longer being eligible because

of earned income, if any; (c) no longer being a resident of the county,

if any; or (d) failing to respond because of other reasons;

(3) an evaluation of historical caseload trends, both statewide and in

the demonstration counties, including a study of monthly records for the

two years prior to the demonstration, and also including the closing of

cases at recertification. Analysis of such monthly records shall be

conducted as part of the basis of estimating benefits under the

demonstration;

(4) an analysis of the procedures used to verify suspicions of fraud

including follow-up of identified cases of fraud, if any;

(5) aggregate totals of false matches, if any, found by the system,

the methods used to correct such errors and an accounting of the

duplicate applications for benefits, if any, that are detected by the

system; and

(6) an estimate of the savings, if any, resulting from the

implementation of finger imaging, and an estimate of the actual costs of

the system including, but not limited to equipment costs, the costs of

linking terminals, site preparation and the costs of any additional

staff required to operate the system.

(j) Not later than February first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, the

contractor shall submit the report required by paragraph (i) of

subdivision three of this section to the governor, the majority leader

of the senate and the speaker of the assembly and to the commissioner of

the department of social services.

(k) The local social service districts establishing an automated

finger imaging matching identification system pursuant to this

subdivision shall be deemed an agency as defined in subdivision one of

section ninety-two of the public officers law, and data collected and

maintained in such automated system shall be deemed records and systems

of records as defined in subdivisions nine and eleven of such section of

such law. Except as otherwise specifically provided in this section, the

provisions of article six-a of such law, known as the "personal privacy

protection law" shall apply to the records and systems of records

collected and maintained by such local social service districts pursuant

to this section.

(l) Expenditures made by social services districts, and determined

cost effective by the department, including those expenditures necessary

for contracts planned or executed on or before the effective date of

this section, for the design, development, implementation and

administrative costs of the automated finger imaging matching

identification system shall be subject to one hundred percent state

reimbursement.

(m) The automated finger imaging matching identification system shall

be established in the selected districts not later than October first,

nineteen hundred ninety-four, and such demonstration projects shall

expire upon the enactment of a chapter of the laws of nineteen hundred

ninety-five providing for an automated fraud prevention system based on

personally unique identification factors.