Wisconsin Administrative Code
Department of Health Services
DHS 250 - Economic Support
Chapter DHS 254 - IM Worker Training
Section DHS 254.02 - Definitions

(1) "Automated system" means a computer-supported process used by the department and the department of workforce development, including CARES.

(2) "CARES" means the department of workforce development's automated client assistance for re-employment and economic support.

Note CARES is the automated system used by DWD and DHS to determine eligibility, calculate benefits, and retain data for income maintenance programs and W-2.

(3) "Case management" means the family-centered and goal-oriented process for assessing the needs of an IM group member and his or her family for employment, training, and supportive services and assisting the IM group member in obtaining services to achieve self-sufficiency.

(4) "County agency" means the agency established under s. 46.215, 46.22, or 46.23, Stats.

(5) "Department" means the Wisconsin department of health services.

(6) "Eligibility determination" means the act or process by which the situation of a person or a group is compared to a set of standards to determine whether the person or group meets the criteria for receiving a specific type of income maintenance.

(7) "Experienced IM worker" means an IM worker employed by a county, tribal or W-2 agency before December 1, 1999, or an IM worker who has completed initial income maintenance training.

(8) "IM handbooks, manuals, and instructional materials" means income maintenance handbooks, manuals, and memos that are issued by the department of health services and addressed to county and tribal agencies and set forth eligibility and benefit criteria and case maintenance and case processing information.

(9) "Income maintenance" or "IM" has the same meaning as "income maintenance program" in s. 49.78(1) (b), Stats.

Note Section 49.78(1) (b) provides that: "`Income maintenance program' means the Medical Assistance program under subch. IV, the Badger Care health care program under s. 49.665, the food stamp program under 7 USC 2011 to 2036 except for the employment and training program described in s. 49.79(9), or the cemetery, funeral, and burial expenses program under s. 49.785."

(10) "Income maintenance worker" or "IM worker" means a person employed by a county, a governing body of a federally recognized American Indian whose duties include determinations or redeterminations of income maintenance program eligibility.

(11) "New IM worker" means a person who is employed by a county or tribal agency as an IM worker on or after December 1, 1999, including a permanent employee who transfers into an IM worker position and who has not completed initial income maintenance training.

(12) "Tribal agency" means an agency designated by the elected tribal governing body of a federally-recognized Wisconsin Indian tribe or band and contracted by the department to administer an income maintenance program.