Sprint Seeks Lifeline, Verifier Pauses to Avoid Potential De-Enrollment of Millions
Sprint urged deferring Lifeline de-enrollments and national verifier "hard" launches until Universal Service Administrative Co. gains greater automated access to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program databases. The Lifeline provider said USAC has negotiated such access to SNAP, Medicaid and…
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Federal Public Housing Assistance program databases in only eight of the 27 states and territories where the NV is in use (16 hard launches where it's mandatory and 11 soft launches); in 16 it has only FPHA access. The carrier said more than 60 percent of current Lifeline applicants demonstrate eligibility through SNAP and Medicaid participation, and only 0.6 percent through FPHA. "In 11 jurisdictions, the NV will launch without a connection to a state [SNAP or Medicaid] database due to cost effectiveness constraints,” the provider filed, posted Tuesday in FCC docket 11-42. That forces manual reverification that's "highly problematic and can result in large numbers of customer de-enrollments due to extremely low end user response rates," Sprint said. "The mass de-enrollment of potentially millions of otherwise-eligible Lifeline subscribers because of a difficult and ineffective reverification process clearly is not in the public interest." It backed refining database search criteria, enhancing feedback on reverification failures, establishing "consistent, transparent application of eligibility criteria" and temporarily suspending Lifeline recertification in remaining non-NV states. The National Lifeline Association urged the NV to "incorporate checks or 'dips' against the national CMS/Medicaid database, as well as any additional state SNAP databases that may come online, prior to any deenrollments." NaLA voiced "appreciation for recent stakeholder engagement toward implementing" an NV application programming interface solution to allow providers "to help consumers navigate the verification process." The FCC and USAC didn't comment.