Nonprofit launches tool to help agencies field Medicaid, SNAP rule changes
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The Benefit Navigator tool has been years in the making, and its most recent iteration could be critical for public agencies trying to keep residents connected to public benefits.
States and localities are bracing for the impact of the Trump administration’s changes to public benefit programs under H.R. 1, and one tech nonprofit is offering agencies a tool to better navigate the new eligibility and enrollment rules.
With the goal of simplifying the application and enrollment processes for public benefits, the Benefit Navigator tool helps caseworkers find benefits-related information and track their clients’ benefits statuses more efficiently to expand and maintain people’s access to public assistance resources.
The platform, launched last month by the tech nonprofit Amplifi, can help public agencies and community-based organizations have a “proactive response” to the changes in H.R. 1, which alter eligibility for Medicaid and payment models for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, said Jill Bauman, CEO of Amplifi, formerly known as Imagine LA.
The software-as-a-service tool has been in development since 2020, and previous testing of its impact across more than 60 agencies helped more than 17,000 households in California access $185 million in untapped benefits, she said. The average increase in annual benefits and tax credits was $10,000.
Now, the Benefit Navigator is accessible nationwide to every state and county under the latest launch, which can position caseworkers and agencies to stay on top of new and changing rules for benefits eligibility and enrollment to prevent clients’ confusion or the loss of coverage, Bauman explained.
An estimated 11.8 million people could lose their Medicaid coverage, and four million people could lose their SNAP benefits as a result of the federal government’s changes to the public assistance programs.
Under H.R. 1, for example, SNAP recipients are subject to expanded work requirements, which could deter people from applying to or enrolling in the program. Plus, states are at risk of losing federal SNAP funding if their payment error rates exceed 6%.
The Benefit Navigator offers a suite of resources and services to help caseworkers and agencies minimize such disruptions to administering benefits. For example, the platform offers an information hub where users can find critical information on federal, state and local public benefits and tax credit programs, including descriptions of who can be eligible; how and where to apply; which documents a person needs for their application; and how to recertify for the program, she said.
The hub distills complex policy documents into plain language, which can be translated to various languages, to help users better assist clients throughout the benefits application and enrollment process. That information can also be accessed through the tool’s AI-enabled chatbot that aims to streamline those efforts, which was piloted by more than 500 case managers from September 2023 to November 2024.
Users can also leverage the tool’s benefit screener and calculator tool to evaluate what financial assistance someone can qualify for, and how many benefits they could expect to receive based on data like their family status and income changes, Bauman said.
To further optimize benefit enrollment processes, Amplifi is exploring how to incorporate agentic AI capabilities into the tool to automate the completion of benefit program applications, expediting the time it takes for humans to review and approve such information.
Those services aim to help reduce error rates, mitigate caseworker and client uncertainty and increase the access to and use of benefits because, with a resource like the Benefit Navigator, “they know exactly what needs to be done,” she said.