25. One-E-App Pilot

25.1. Introduction

In response to a request from the Commission, The Center to Promote Health Care Access (The Center) provided a proposal to integrate the California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) Program into the One-E-App system. One-E-App is a Web-based one stop eligibility system. This pilot proposal is the result of conversations with the Commission and a meeting that took place July 1, 2008 with the CPUC, PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, and SoCalGas to explore how One-E-App can compliment current outreach and eligibility efforts in CARE and move toward automatic enrollment as required by SB 580. Based on these discussions, the priority needs for the program include the following:

· Increase participation in CARE;

· Partner to help expand the network of outreach and enrollment channels for low income hard to reach customers, starting with a pilot project in collaboration with PG&E;

· Leverage application and eligibility data used for establishing eligibility in other categorical programs, such as Medi-Cal and WIC to support the determination of CARE eligibility; and

· Streamline the screening, eligibility, and retention of participants in CARE, with a focus on how to reduce "churn" or disenrollment of participants at the time of program eligibility renewal.

On October 7, 2005, the Governor signed into law Senate Bill 580 (Escutia) that among several things, required the Secretary of the State's Health and Human Services Agency to evaluate, before April, 2006, how the agency's databases could be optimized to facilitate automatic CARE enrollment of eligible low income customers. Initial discussions about pilot project approaches explored leveraging WIC enrollment data; however, to-date these discussions have not been conclusive nor have they resulted in an agreed upon pilot.

The IOUs achieve their current CARE penetration rate through a variety of outreach efforts, including:

· Electronic applications available in several languages which are publically accessible through the Internet.

· Automated CARE data exchange between utilities.

· Eligibility assistance provided by contracted community organizations that are provided a per application financial incentive to encourage and reward application assistance to community members that results in a successful CARE application.

CARE applications do not require verification documents to be submitted in order for an application to be approved. However, recertification efforts are conducted that require the submission of verifications to substantiate the information submitted by the applicants on their CARE application, such as income and eligibility in other categorical programs.

25.2. One-E-App

One-E-App is a Web-based eligibility solution used by a variety of CBOs and other organizations (schools, clinics, churches and others) for eligibility in a wide range of health and social services. By including CARE in One-E-App, the Commission will leverage both the tool and the associated resources that are dedicated to helping enroll low income vulnerable community members in these important support programs.

The outreach provided by CBOs is tailored to individual communities and delivered in a context that is both culturally and linguistically appropriate. By factoring in elements such as location (e.g., church, library, clinic, and resource center), culture, language and literacy, many community-based organizations are able to circumvent barriers to building community awareness and engagement that are experienced when efforts rely primarily on mainstream efforts (e.g., print and self-help online applications).

Through One-E-App, the CARE program will be introduced as an available resource to a variety of community service organizations, including hospitals, clinics, schools, and a variety of community-based organizations (CBOs), that take as their mission helping to serve vulnerable communities and work to connect them to available health and social service programs. The incorporation of CARE in One-E-App will enable these application assistance experts to include CARE in the compliment of programs to which they strive to connect community members.

One-E-App screens (in real time) across a broad range of programs. By using the data already gathered in One-E-App for these programs, plus a few additional data elements required by CARE, the One-E-App rules engine will screen for CARE simultaneously when screening for other categorical programs. This will increase the odds of finding eligible CARE participants, and make the eligibility process more user-friendly and rational for families who would otherwise need to provide the same information on separate applications. For example, an individual applying for Medi-Cal at a community clinic is assisted by a certified application assister (CAA) who collects the information and verification documents needed to complete a Medi-Cal application. If the clinic uses One-E-App to determine eligibility and generate applications for multiple programs, the individual will also learn that, based on the information collected, he or she is also eligible for CARE, and can be assisted with electronically submitting an electronic CARE application. Equally as important, the utilities and CPUC will have more ability to know that the population they are serving is also likely eligible for these other public programs.

One-E-App will support the CARE eligibility renewal process by providing CAAs the information required to support renewal activities, such as the date on which a renewal application is required to guarantee ongoing participation in CARE. Using One-E-App, CAAs are well equipped to help prevent a disruption in program participation as One-E-App provides a tickler system, contact management tools, automatically generated letters, and most importantly, pre-populated electronic applications that only require updates at the time of renewal. But more important than all these tools offered in One-E-App, the applicants are far more likely to return to get help from an organization that has been helpful to them in the past to conduct their renewal or change in circumstance applications. This helps to reduce the administrative inefficiencies resulting from participants churning in and out of the program. Program renewal application assistance is regularly provided for other programs in One-E-App, again highlighting the opportunity to leverage existing efforts.

In summary, One-E-App will provide another channel for low income customers to learn about and participate in CARE, and help enrolled CARE customers maintain eligibility through the renewal process by using a tested tool, a committed and growing network of users and a robust rules engine that provides an accurate and reliable screen across programs.

With the opportunities identified, the next section outlines the project approach for a pilot that will help establish the benefits of the CPUC partnership with the Center and One-E-App.

25.3. Description of Pilot

The aforementioned discussions resulted in a decision whereby the most likely utility to work with The Center in a pilot was PG&E. Outcomes and lessons learned in the pilot will inform subsequent expansion of CARE eligibility via One-E-App. The pilot will integrate only the CARE program, but will explore the feasibility of adding other Commission assistance programs into One-E-App in the future.

The Center proposes conducting the pilot in two One-E-App counties. The Center suggests a two-county pilot because of county variation in size and other demographics. A two-county pilot will provide a more informed perspective for expanding to new areas. The pilot will include the following:

1. Analysis to determine population cross over;

2. Integration of CARE rules in One-E-App;

3. Development of interface to deliver and receive data electronically between One-E-App and PG&E;

4. Testing and Training;

5. Launch; and

6. Analysis and Implementation Plan.

Deliverables for this pilot will include:

· Cross over analysis summary report

· Go-live in two counties

· Three-month report post go-live

· Implementation plan for rollout beyond the pilot counties and recommending the inclusion of additional utility subsidy programs as appropriate

The cost of the two-county pilot project described in this proposal is $167,000, which we allocate to PG&E's CARE budget. Costs include analysis of the population crossover, a Subject Matter Experts (SME) session with CARE program administrators, system configuration, development, testing, training, post-launch support, county engagement and project management.

In comments on the proposed decision, PG&E asks for funding for its portion of the pilot of an additional $225,000. Part of this is for application development in the amount of $157,000. We grant PG&E half of this amount ($78,500) because the Center will do much of this work, and give PG&E an additional $136,000 related to the pilot.

25.4. Discussion

We adopt this pilot project to move toward fulfillment of the responsibilities given to us by the Legislature in SB 580. Additionally, as we discuss above, we have set a 90% CARE penetration goal. We anticipate that the results of the One-E-App pilot will assist the utilities in reaching that rate. We do not grant PG&E the full $225,000 it seeks in funding to cover its portion of the pilot. The Center will do a fair portion of the design work, so we reduce PG&E's request in that area by 50% and allocate the following funding for the pilot: