113-4          QUALITY ASSESSMENT REVIEW COMMITTEE (QARC )

The QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee meets monthly to review and discuss Alaska Food Stamp, Alaska Temporary Assistance, Adult Public Assistance, and Medicaid errors found by QA Quality Assurance Reviewers.  The purposes of the QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee are:

• To determine if policy and regulations support a change in the initial QA Quality Assurance finding to correct a case or reduce the error amount; and
   

• To identify error causes and corrective actions.

Prior to the QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee , the Review Assessment.for Policy (RAP) Committee meets to discuss the error and determine if policy or regulation supports the error being reduced or eliminated. Meanwhile, representatives from the regional offices review the QA Quality Assurance findings and begin researching the case to determine if they have additional information that could result in a reduction or elimination of the case error.  Additional information can be forwarded to the policy staff at any time in the process.

In addition, the QA Quality Assurance Program Officer (or designee) develops a QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee meeting agenda and schedules time for each regional office’s representative to present their cases.

The QA Quality Assurance Program Officer or a designee facilitates the QARC meeting.  A regional representative presents the cases.  The representative either concurs with QA’s error finding or presents information that will reduce or eliminate the error(s).  Once the regional representative presents information, all QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee participants have an open discussion to find ways to reduce or eliminate the error(s).

QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee team members include representatives from the field, policy, and quality assessment.  As such, QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee is the primary venue for identifying policy, procedural, or system changes that need additional research and analysis.

Reviews requiring additional research are pended and reviewed at the next QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee meeting.  Findings that cannot be amended are sent to the QA Quality Assurance Research Analyst for recording and transmission.  The QA Quality Assurance Program Officer keeps a record of the decisions and corrective actions discussed during the QARC Quality Assessment Review Committee meeting.

Child Care QARC

In accordance with the Federal Child Care Bureau's "Measuring Improper Authorizations for Payment in the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Program", once every three years, each state completes a rigorous and prescriptive sampling and review of child care cases in the state.

In Alaska, all cases determined to be in error are reviewed by the Child Care Quality Assessment Review Committee (CC-QARC) on a monthly basis.  The CC-QARC Child Care Quality Assessment Review Committee reviews each error with respect to Federal and Alaska child care policy, case details, information technology, training, and possible corrective actions.

Staff from QA Quality Assurance , Alaska Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) and the child care grantee (contractor) participated in the CC-QARC Child Care Quality Assessment Review Committee .