a. Assessing Compliance at Renewal if the State Does Not Elect To Conduct More Frequent Verifications of Compliance With the Community Engagement Requirement

To implement section 1902(xx)(a)(1)(B)(i) of the Act, at § 435.556(a)(2)(i), we require States that do not opt to conduct more frequent verifications of compliance with the ( printed page 33390) community engagement requirement to assess an applicable individual's compliance during the period between such individual's most recent determination or redetermination of eligibility and the date the individual's renewal is due, consistent with section 1902(e)(14)(L) of the Act and § 435.916. The period of time between the effective date of the individual's last determination or redetermination of eligibility and the date the renewal is due is also referred to as the individual's “eligibility period.” For beneficiaries, their eligibility period is the “review period” at renewal when States do not conduct more frequent verifications of compliance with the community engagement requirement. As part of the renewal process, a State must verify that a beneficiary who is an applicable individual demonstrated or is deemed to have demonstrated community engagement for the required number of months during the review period (which is the same period of time as the eligibility period).

In this context, we interpret “redetermination of eligibility” to mean the redetermination conducted during the individual's periodic renewal of eligibility under section 1902(e)(14)(L) of the Act and § 435.916(a), rather than as a result of a change in circumstances following the redetermination procedures at § 435.916(d). We considered whether to interpret “redetermination of eligibility” to also include redeterminations based on instances when the State only evaluates the eligibility factor for which the individual experienced a change in accordance with § 435.916(d)(1)(i). However, we did not choose to include such redeterminations because they are limited in nature and could shorten an individual's review period based on a change unrelated to community engagement.

At renewal, States must require a beneficiary who is an applicable individual to demonstrate at least 1 month of community engagement during the review period. When considering whether to require applicable individuals to demonstrate more than 1 month of community engagement at renewal, a State should consider how long its renewal process currently takes in relation to the length of the eligibility period. We remind States that most individuals required to demonstrate community engagement are also subject to the new 6-month renewal requirement under section 1902(e)(14)(L) of the Act. Because most States currently take between 60 and 90 days to complete all steps in the renewal process for a cohort, an individual subject to renewals once every 6 months may only have been enrolled in their current eligibility period for approximately 3 months when the State initiates the next renewal and begins checking reliable information available to the State. As such, in electing the number of months during the review period for which a beneficiary must demonstrate community engagement at renewal, a State should consider its ability to access timely data to verify compliance with community engagement and otherwise renew eligibility, consistent with the community engagement ex parte verification requirements in section 1902(xx)(5) of the Act, this IFC, and existing Federal renewal requirements at § 435.916(a).