Company Profile

Company Overview

The DFCS Call Center is a telephone call center that uses a group of call agents or telephone representatives to complete changes with the increased probability that all reported changes will be processed accurately and timely.

Currently, customers in 83 counties in the State of Georgia report changes in their circumstances to the Metro Call Center (Atlanta) and South Georgia Call Center (Albany) by telephone rather than going to their local county DFCS office. Each Call Center is assigned responsibility for processing changes for all 83 counties. When statewide expansion is complete, the DFCS Call Center will process changes for all 159 counties in the State of Georgia.


The DFCS Call Center is a telephone call center that uses a group of call agents or telephone representatives to accept and process changes reported by Food Stamp, TANF, and Medicaid recipients in Georgia.

By receiving and processing all telephone report of changes on active cases by clients, the Call Center assumes responsibility for a substantial amount of work assigned to the counties served by the DFCS Call Center. This allows staff in the county offices to concentrate on completing initial applications, reviews, and employment services activities.

Customers may report changes in the following ways:
* Telephone from any location including the local DFCS office
* By fax
* By U.S. Mail

To service families with the highest level of quality and customer care while effectively and efficiently processing changes for Georgia recipients of TANF, Medicaid, and Food Stamps, the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) established the Metro Call Center (MCC) in January 1998 as a Food Stamp Program Payment Accuracy initiative (pilot). This initiative targeted errors caused by client’s failure to report changes and errors caused by our agency’s failure to act on reported changes. Initially, there were nine (9) counties being served.

As a result of the success of the MCC initiative, Georgia expanded DFCS Call Center operations by opening a second Call Center in December 2001. This Call Center is referred to as the South Georgia Call Center (SGCC) and is located in Albany, which is in Southwest Georgia.

To better serve the citizens of Georgia, the two call centers began to operate as a virtual call center in April 2006. Customer calls are routed to the first available agent, regardless of location site. Thus, resulting in a significant increase in the total number of customers being served in Georgia.


* The Call Center is operational 24-hours a day with staff on site from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. A telephone message system is used to collect reported changes during after hours.

* Call Agents have the ability to key the reported changes in SUCCESS (statewide computer system) while on the telephone with customers. The goal of every call is to inform customer of their new benefit amount.

* Customers who call or go into the local county DFCS office to report changes are referred to the Call Center. Each participating office has a designated area for customers to report changes. Each area is equipped with a facsimile machine and direct telephone line programmed to call the DFCS Call Center.

* Each county served by the Call Center is provided a supply of business cards to distribute at each contact with clients at the county office. The DFCS Call Center business cards are available in English or Spanish. The cards provide Call Center telephone and fax numbers, hours of operation, mailing address and other frequently requested telephone numbers.

The DFACS Call Center processes the following client reported changes:
* Income Changes
* Address /Shelter Changes
* Adding/removing household members
* Name Changes
* Changes in medical deductions
* Changes in child care deductions
* Changes in resources
* DOB and Gender/Race corrections
* SSN corrections
* Determine Student eligibility
* Review Continue Medicaid eligibility
* Lift enumeration/immunization sanctions
* Process and schedule claims
* Correct agency error cases for the ongoing month
* Fair Hearing Requests

*Spanish workers process all changes reported by clients when Spanish is their primary language. FTCA use the Language Line Interpreting Service for callers whose primary language is not English or Spanish.

These changes are completed on TANF, Food Stamps and Family Medicaid cases.

In addition to processing changes reported via telephone calls, the Change Center processes information available via the following reports:
* W4 Alert (New Hire Reports; Alert #136)
A New Hire Alert is information reported from an interface with the Georgia Department of Labor (DOL) reporting new hires (employment) .
* SSA Death Match Alerts
A Death Match Alert is information reported through an interface with the Social Security Administration (SDX) that a client who was on the SDX file and was a recipient of Food Stamps, TANF, or Medicaid Benefits is deceased
* Newborn Medicaid Certification Reports
The Call Agent acts on Georgia Department of Community Health Division of Medical Assistance (DCH/DMA) reports of new babies.
The Call Center also completes Special Projects as needed to support county operations.

Changes reported in certain circumstances are not processed by the Call Center and the call agent must refer the client to the local office. These changes are referred to the local county department for completion.

These situations include:

* Application for FS, TANF or Medicaid
* Changes which occur on a pending application that has been interviewed.
* Changes which occur and the review has been initiated
* Child Support Gap
* Historical changes
* Medicaid Applications for Pregnant women
* Reinstatement of cases closed by county
* Rescheduling appointments
* Resolving issues between client and worker in county offices
* Sanctions for failure to meet work requirements
* System alerts (exception 136 - New Hire, 161 - Death Match)
* Transfer of case records to other counties or offices

When a change is reported that the Call Center will not process, the reported information is documented in the case record. An email concerning the reported change is immediately sent to the worker and supervisor at the local county office. A copy of the email is forwarded to the Quality Assurance Specialist who tracks for completion.

Certain changes reported and completed at the Call Center may require additional action by the county department. In these situations, the Call Agent will email the contact person briefly stating what follow-up is needed. It is important to note that the reported change has been acted on but may not be completed because there is follow up required from the local county case manager.

Example of changes completed by the Call Center that require additional follow up by the county office:
* Addition of ABAWD to Food Stamp (FS) case
* Addition or loss of earnings to TANF case
* Changes to cases with a related subsidized child care case
* Changes reported on pending applications or reviews
* TANF or Medicaid AU moves to another county
* Voluntary quit of job in FS and TANF case
* AU states requested verification was provided to county office
* Insufficient or conflicting information exists in the case and the change cannot be processed


* The Call Center reviews food stamp cases through case accuracy review.
* Calls are monitored for quality customer service delivery
* Agents logs are screened and reviewed to ensure accuracy in reporting calls and processing actions
* Incoming fax/mail are scanned and/or logged to ensure all verification is acted upon timely.
* Data from SUCCESS and MITEL are used for statistical validation
* Customer call back surveys are completed to measure customer satisfaction and to identify areas of improvement.