West Virginia Code 9-8-5 – Identity authentication
(a) Prior to awarding public assistance, applicants for benefits must complete a computerized identity authentication process to confirm the identity of the applicant. This shall be done with a knowledge-based questionnaire consisting of financial and/or personal questions. The questionnaire must contain questions tailored to assist persons without a bank account or those who have poor access to financial and banking services or who do not have an established credit history. The questionnaire may be submitted online, in-person, or via telephone.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 9-8-5
- Assistance: means the three classes of assistance, namely: Federal-state assistance, federal assistance and state assistance. See West Virginia Code 9-1-2
- Department: means the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. See West Virginia Code 9-8-1
- EBT: means any electronic system which allows the department to issue and track benefits via a magnetically encoded payment card. See West Virginia Code 9-8-1
- Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
- recipient: means a person who is applying for, or currently receiving, public assistance in the State of West Virginia from the department. See West Virginia Code 9-8-1
- Services: means nursing facility services, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services for which an individual received Medicaid medical assistance. See West Virginia Code 9-1-2
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
(b) The department shall submit a report to the Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Resources Accountability regarding the feasibility of implementing the photo EBT card option under 7 U.S.C. § 2016(h)(9). The study shall address certain operational issues to ensure that state implementation would be consistent with all federal requirements, and that program access is protected for participating households, including, but not limited to, allowing the recipient to designate permitted users for purposes of utilizing the photo EBT card.