HOME ABOUT OUR WORK Topic icon Criminal Courts Topic icon Credit and Finance Topic icon Housing Topic icon Labor and Employment Topic icon Policing Topic icon Public Benefits Topic icon Across the Field See all of our work OUR TEAM JOIN US
Issue icon image

Public Benefits

People should have access to the care and support they need to lead safe and healthy lives.

The goal of this work is to help state and national partners — especially legal aid organizations and nonprofit attorneys — to interrogate, litigate against, and improve public benefits technologies (e.g., for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and SNAP). We have seen how technology can hinder or support access to benefits, as well as how implementing new technologies can hide political discretion in allocating resources. Because of this, we do proactive research into better approaches to expanding access, while helping to address immediate problems with technologies used today for benefits administration.

Featured

Calculated Need

Miriam Osman, Emily Paul, Emma Weil

Our report on eligibility algorithms for Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services found that automated eligibility determinations are not designed to meet people’s needs. Rather, they are political and budgetary tools designed to control access to state-provided home care benefits.

Read more

Latest work in this issue area

All work in this issue area
Comments on the Social Security Administration's proposed rule on use of electronic payroll data

With Legal Aid of Arkansas, we submitted comments to the Social Security Administration on their proposed rule to use payroll data to allow people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to opt in to automated reporting to meet wage reporting requirements for these programs.

Emily Paul and Emma Weil

Federal Trade Commission Deloitte Complaint

Upturn joined the National Health Law Program and EPIC in an FTC complaint to address issues with Deloitte’s automated eligibility determination system in Texas that have caused people to lose Medicaid coverage.

National Health Law Program (NHeLP), Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and Upturn

Benefits Tech Advocacy Hub

We’re partnering with Legal Aid of Arkansas and the National Health Law Program to provide tools for advocates to fight harmful benefits technology and to build a community of advocates and technologists working to challenge tech that keeps people from accessing benefits.

Upturn, Legal Aid of Arkansas, and the National Health Law Program

Comments on Medicaid administration technology

We submitted comments in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ request for information on Access to Care and Coverage for People Enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. These comments focus on the ways that the technology used to administer Medicaid — in particular, Medicaid Long-Term Services & Supports — can increase barriers to accessing care.

Emily Paul and Emma Weil