EBT Services for the Food Assistance Program
The Department seeks Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) services for the Food Assistance (formerly Food Stamps) Program. These EBT services are mostly currently provided by an incumbent contractor. The Contractor will be required to provide these existing core EBT services, as well as a number of specified and optional enhancements, including expanded support of the well-regarded EBT Wireless project. In addition, the State of Iowa seeks the capability to add other nutrition programs to the EBT platform. The Department envisions a Family Nutrition Card, which would be used by eligible clients to access benefits for the Food Assistance (FA), WIC, WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), and Senior FMNP.
In addition to the programs mentioned above, the Department believes that the successful EBT card vendor may be able to provide cards for other programs. The Department envisions that these card uses could include conveying cash benefits to clients and transferring provider payments electronically. Payment card programs could mirror the EBT program, but with benefits associated with a debit or deposit account.
The Department also envisions the potential for procuring these services to support program eligibility verification, utilization and tracking. Iowa Medicaid, for instance, currently issues yearly eligibility cards. Approximately 490,000 cards are issued throughout the year to Medicaid members. Approximately 370,000 cards are issued in the yearly reissuance, with the remainder issued as needed for new members or as replacement cards. The current Iowa Medicaid cards resemble semi-permanent cards provided by major health plans and are printed with the member name and ID on the front of the card and are not mag-stripe cards. The Department may decide to move to mag-stripe technology in the future for such eligibility systems.
