Fundamentals of Case Management: Intake, Eligibility Determination, and Screening

Governance

Many laws and policies at the federal, state and county levels affect the health and human service programs intake, eligibility and screening processes. Laws and policies provide governance on the following:

• Who qualifies for programs/services.
• Criteria used to determine program/service eligibilities.
• Activities to process applications for services.
• Processes to determine types of programs/services people can receive.
• Timelines during which intake, eligibility determination and screening must occur.
• Timelines for notification of intake results.

An example of how a law and policy guide the three aspects of the intake process.

Title XIX of the Social Security Act and Minnesota Statute 256B provide guidance to case managers for the intake process for Medical Assistance (MA) programs.

During the intake meeting, the case manager must collect information such as a person's age, income, disability or family status. To obtain MA services, individuals must meet certain criteria around these variables.

Once the case manager completes the intake meeting, they turn to Minnesota Statute 256B to determine if the person meets the basic eligibility requirements to receive MA. The Minnesota statute also guides the case manager in areas such as eligibility for non-state residents and immigrants, and eligibility in addition to a person's existing health care coverage.

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