What's new at MLS

Hello all, and happy new week!  I'm writing with an update on the doula bill, An Act relative to Medicaid coverage for doula services (H.1240/S.782). Click here for a fact sheet, and here for talking points. The bill would require MassHealth to cover doula…

Dear Feeding Our Neighbors and SNAP Coalition Members: As many of you know, tomorrow, Tuesday, September 12th, the Joint Committee on Children and Families is holding a public hearing on roughly 35 bills, including S.76/H.135 An Act establishing basic needs assistance for Massachusetts…

SNAP Interview Calls: We have been seeing cases where clients do not receive an interview call  from DTA at the scheduled interview time. The client then receives a "notice of missed interview."  First, please let us know if you have any clients who do not get an interview call…

See also last week's Boston Globe opinion piece on same: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/09/26/facing-hunger-college-campuses/5YuqiPlgugUwIUhuv3SsBI/story.html ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: James Dubick <james@studentsagainsthunger.org> Date: Wed, Oct 5,…

Settlement in Wage Match case We are writing to alert you to a settlement in wage match lawsuit filed a few years ago against the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA). In 2014 and 2015 DTA sent hundreds of thousands of notices to SNAP households based on a match with Department of…

MassHealth and the Connector have posted the new paper application form to be used in applying for MassHealth, subsidized insurance through the Connector, CMSP and the Health Safety Net for people under age 65.  It's the ACA-3 (Oct…

USDA recently posted the state-by-state SNAP "timeliness processing" data for FFY 2013 (that's federal fiscal year for Oct 1, 2012 to Sept 31, 2013).    According to USDA, Massachusetts fell from 10th in the nation in FFY 2011 in processing SNAP applications to 39th in…

The Department of Public Health (DPH) has formally announced the WIC switch to the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system from the the more cumbersome food vouchers, This is a significant change for both WIC participants as well as retailers and should be an improvement in…

Have you heard from Massachusetts SNAP recipients about local stores/corner markets that have STOPPED accepting their EBT benefits? In the past month, we have become aware of a few stores that announced they no longer participate in EBT, and put up signs on their front doors…