This Friday, December 18, Dr. Janey Thornton , deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service will perform site visits in Kentucky to observe the State's new WIC Electronic Benefits Transfer system in action.
The system, called WIC Direct , has been in pilot operations for two months. WIC Direct delivers supplemental food benefits to eligible women, infants and children. It replaces use of paper checks with a magnetic-stripe card similar to a debit card. Currently only a handful of states are using EBT card technology to delivery WIC benefits. Kentucky is the latest.
A native Kentuckian, Dr. Thornton will be visiting a Walmart as well as a Houchens store as well as several WIC clinics where eligible consumers enroll to participate in the WIC program.
WIC Direct was developed by CDP , a company with a 25-year history of developing custom health system solutions for public and private sector customers. The WIC Direct system improves the check out process for WIC customers, allows them to check their balances, and reduces paper work for program staff.
The system, which was in development for two years, was designed to provide an affordable online solution to the problem of authorizing the sale of WIC food products, according to Stan Cochran, CDP chief executive. Because of the controls and regulations on the sale of WIC foods, the WIC retail transaction can be complex. Another goal of the project is to engage retailers in integrating the WIC EBT transaction into their own electronic cash register systems.
When fully deployed, the system will serve nearly 130,000 Kentuckians as well as over 1,100 retailers across the state.
Showing posts with label WIC EBT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WIC EBT. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Wal Mart and WIC EBT
Former Next Generation Speaker Jennifer Smith from Walmart testified recently before the Senate Agriculture committee on WIC and EBT. Never shy about the company's position on EBT, Ms. Smith's comments included a request that Congress mandate development of one set of operating standards for WIC EBT. She also suggested that lawmakers consider making the WIC program interoperable in the same way the SNAP program is. This would be not only a technical change along the order that the program has never seen, but it would be a cultural change for the many agencies that administer WIC. And it would come on the footsteps of the new WIC food package and other administrative changes that right now have their hands full.
Perhaps the "ask" Walmart made at the hearing was for the Congress to mandate adoption of WIC EBT. This would force Congress to supply the funding that would finally end the use of checks and vouchers in the system.
There is no doubt that operating standards are necessary to propel WIC EBT into its next generation, much in the same way that the April 2002 food stamp operating regulations transformed EBT from experimental science to the sole method of benefit distribution (although it took 12 years) in the U.S.
But going to Congress with such a concept may fall into the "be careful what you ask for" category. While Congress may grant Walmart's wish, it may do so in a way that ties the hands of the executive agency (USDA) and saddles the EBT community with a set of regulations that are so proscriptive as to make development more difficult than it has to be. For an example, Google "digital TV converter," and see how a constraining law made a relatively simple task more difficult.
And mandating conversion to WIC EBT may be nirvana for EBT processors and consultants. But is it realistic given the lack of technology resources of most WIC agencies? There certainly are a good number of states that can take on that challenge in 2010 and 2011; however, there are many more that are underfunded, overworked, and would be, frankly, overwhelmed if told to just go out and "git 'er done."
The EBT community, the states, the federal agency and the private sector, have all worked on these issues methodically for many years before Walmart became a player in WIC EBT. It has been slow, frustrating work. But imposing mandates on unprepared states may not be the best way to accelerate the process. The EBT community could find itself no longer driving the train, but being dragged behind it.
Perhaps the "ask" Walmart made at the hearing was for the Congress to mandate adoption of WIC EBT. This would force Congress to supply the funding that would finally end the use of checks and vouchers in the system.
There is no doubt that operating standards are necessary to propel WIC EBT into its next generation, much in the same way that the April 2002 food stamp operating regulations transformed EBT from experimental science to the sole method of benefit distribution (although it took 12 years) in the U.S.
But going to Congress with such a concept may fall into the "be careful what you ask for" category. While Congress may grant Walmart's wish, it may do so in a way that ties the hands of the executive agency (USDA) and saddles the EBT community with a set of regulations that are so proscriptive as to make development more difficult than it has to be. For an example, Google "digital TV converter," and see how a constraining law made a relatively simple task more difficult.
And mandating conversion to WIC EBT may be nirvana for EBT processors and consultants. But is it realistic given the lack of technology resources of most WIC agencies? There certainly are a good number of states that can take on that challenge in 2010 and 2011; however, there are many more that are underfunded, overworked, and would be, frankly, overwhelmed if told to just go out and "git 'er done."
The EBT community, the states, the federal agency and the private sector, have all worked on these issues methodically for many years before Walmart became a player in WIC EBT. It has been slow, frustrating work. But imposing mandates on unprepared states may not be the best way to accelerate the process. The EBT community could find itself no longer driving the train, but being dragged behind it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
SKU Rationalization
Retailers in their quest to automate operations over the years have developed a number of ways to keep track of products ordered, inventoried, sold and re-ordered. Stock-keeping units, or SKUs, product look ups, or PLUs, for produce, and universal product codes, or UPCs, for grocery items are just part of this alphabet soup.
For practitioners of WIC EBT, UPCs are important because they form the UPC databases that make WIC EBT possible.
But now comes word that retailers are re-looking at the number of items they carry in a store in an effort to "skinny up" their SKUs.
Walmart was the first retailer to act on this, with its "Win/Place/Show" strategy, aimed at reducing the number of items it carries by 18%.
Now smaller format stores are getting into the act, employing "SKU rationalization" to cut down the number of product lines they carry. Fewer products means lower costs.
According to one report, the number of food product lines that could be reduced across the industry does not yet include anything that would affect the WIC program.
But those of us involved in WIC EBT would be wise to monitor this retail trend, less WIC consumers show up at the store one day and not find their favorite brand of cereal or prescribed type of milk.
* * * * *
For more information on issues involving retailers and WIC register today for EBT The Next Generation, Nov. 8-10 in New Orleans. This is the only national conference devoted entirely to EBT issues with several sessions that deal with retailers and WIC. For more information or to register, click here.
For practitioners of WIC EBT, UPCs are important because they form the UPC databases that make WIC EBT possible.
But now comes word that retailers are re-looking at the number of items they carry in a store in an effort to "skinny up" their SKUs.
Walmart was the first retailer to act on this, with its "Win/Place/Show" strategy, aimed at reducing the number of items it carries by 18%.
Now smaller format stores are getting into the act, employing "SKU rationalization" to cut down the number of product lines they carry. Fewer products means lower costs.
According to one report, the number of food product lines that could be reduced across the industry does not yet include anything that would affect the WIC program.
But those of us involved in WIC EBT would be wise to monitor this retail trend, less WIC consumers show up at the store one day and not find their favorite brand of cereal or prescribed type of milk.
* * * * *
For more information on issues involving retailers and WIC register today for EBT The Next Generation, Nov. 8-10 in New Orleans. This is the only national conference devoted entirely to EBT issues with several sessions that deal with retailers and WIC. For more information or to register, click here.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The Intrepid Nine
Congratulations are in order for nine states recently awarded WIC EBT Planning grants. They are:
- Alabama
- Colorado
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Illinois
- Missouri
- Montana
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
These nine states will soon embark on an exciting journey-determining the feasibility of WIC EBT for their individual states, determining what type of technology works best for them, gathering information from WIC retail vendors, local WIC agencies and others on the business processes to be incorporated in the new system, and working with the Food and Nutrition Service to develop RFPs for planning and, hopefully, for implementation.
As they walk down this road, they are walking in the footsteps of many other WIC agencies who have gone before them. States like Wyoming, one of the earliest converts to the WIC EBT concept and a proud participant in the groundbreaking Health Passport concept.
And Michigan, the state that incubated the first successful statewide online WIC EBT project. And Texas, which proved the viability of its "commercial" cost model in rolling out an offline EBT project across that vast state.
These nine states, along with the handful that are currently operating WIC EBT statewide, and the few that are in planning now, will comprise about 20% of the WIC states, territories and tribal organizations. Now WIC EBT is starting to look like something.
2010 may be the year that WIC EBT passes from an interesting concept to a battle-tested delivery system capable of nationwide deployment.
* * * * *
For more information on the current state of WIC EBT, including the search for national standards, interfacing with legacy systems, and evaluating online and offline technology, make plans to attend EBT The Next Generation Nov. 8-10 in New Orleans. For more information, or to register for the conference, click here.
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