Bridges Policy Manuals

1. Bridges Policy Manuals Understanding and Navigating the SharePoint Manuals

2. How to Take this Training In order to access the hyperlinks in this PowerPoint, you will need to view it in Slide Show mode. If it opens from within PowerPoint (in Edit mode), please follow these steps to play the slide show: • On the bottom status bar, click the Slide Show icon. • If you cannot see the bottom status bar, click Slide Show on the top menu, and then click From Current Slide or From Beginning. • If you cannot see the PowerPoint interface, you may be viewing the presentation in Slide Show mode already. This PowerPoint has several hyperlinks that will take you directly to the Bridges Policy Manuals, with directions to “CLICK” on a certain area. If you have a dual monitor, you can follow the steps as you go through the PowerPoint. You may view each section of the PowerPoint separately, and return to the Main Menu from the last slide in each section by clicking on the Return button. Updated 02/05/2014

3. Main Menu Main Menu Order of Manuals Bridges Manuals Finding the Manuals Definitions Navigating the Manuals Searching the Manuals Updated 02/05/2014

4. Bridges Manuals Bridges Policy Manuals The Bridges Policy Manual group consists of four different Manuals: BAM-Bridges Administrative Manual BEM-Bridges Eligibility Manual BPB-Bridges Policy Bulletin Log BPG-Bridges Policy Glossary In addition to the Bridges Policy Manuals, there is a separate State Emergency Relief Manual group. Updated 02/05/2014

5. Definitions Bridges Administrative Manual This is the “how to” manual, containing the policies and procedures related to caseload tasks, such as application processing and redeterminations. Bridges Eligibility Manual This is the “who is eligible” manual. These are the policies and procedures to determine who is eligible for benefits, and how much they will receive. Updated 02/05/2014

6. Definitions Bridges Policy Bulletin Manual This is a “Readers Digest” version of new policy that is being released, or that will be released soon, and the reason for the change. Bridges Policy Glossary This is an explanation of some of the terms used in policy. Updated 02/05/2014

7. Order of Manuals BAM and BEM are ordered in a certain way, that is referred to as the “shape” of the manuals. You will find it much easier to find the policy information you are looking for if you keep this shape in mind. Each Manual consists of Items which are assigned a number. Each series of numbers is assigned to a certain type of policy. New series numbers may be assigned at times when new policy does not align with the current series. For example, Disaster Assistance was assigned a new series when it was established, as it did not align with any of the previous Manual Item series. However, sometimes you will also find some items that don’t seem to fit within the series, such as Resident County Hospitalization found in the Data Exchange series of Items in BAM. Updated 02/05/2014

8. Order of Manuals Order of BAM Manual Items Series-or “How To Do This” 100 Series of Items-Applications 200 Series of Items-Case Actions and Redeterminations 300 Series of Items-The Case Record 400 Series of Items-Issuance of Benefits 500 Series of Items-Replacement of Benefits 600 Series of Items-Administrative Hearings 700 Series of Items-Overissuances and Recoupment 800 Series of Items-Data Exchanges Updated 02/05/2014

9. Order of Manuals Order of BEM Manual Items Series-or “Who is Eligible?” 100 Series of Items-Medicaid (MA) Overview and MA Categories 200 Series of Items-Non-Financial Eligibility Factors 400 Series of Items-Assets 500 Series of Items-Income 600 Series of Items-Special Programs, State Funded Programs 700 Series of Items-Child Development and Care 800 Series of Items-Disaster Assistance Updated 02/05/2014

10. Order of Manuals Bridges Policy Bulletins-New Policy Releases These bulletins are arranged in chronological order, with the most recent being at the top. The numbering system contains the year first, followed by a dash, and then which release it was for the year. For instance, a policy bulletin numbered 2013-14 would indicate that this was the 14th bulletin released in the year 2013. Bridges Policy Glossary-Definitions of Terms used in Policy There are no separate items, instead this is arranged like a dictionary, in alphabetical order. Updated 02/05/2014

11. Finding the Manuals In order to access the policy manuals, first go to your start menu. Select “Start” and move your cursor up to “Programs” Find the Policy Manuals in the Program list. Notice the small arrow to the right. Slide your cursor over to the arrow, and “Policy Manuals” should appear, marked with an Internet Explorer icon. Select “Policy Manuals” to get to the actual manuals. Updated 02/05/2014

12. Navigating the Manuals Now you have arrived at the actual manuals. Notice that there are more manuals here than we discussed previously. Some of these are used by different divisions within DHS. Updated 02/05/2014

13. Navigating the Manuals Click on the “+” sign in the box next to the Bridges Policy Group, and this will show you the different manuals that are contained in that group. Clicking the “-” sign will close it back up. The Manual Groups are arranged in alphabetical order. Updated 02/05/2014

14. Navigating the Manuals After clicking on the “+” sign next to BAM, we can see all the individual Manual Items for that Manual. Select the BAM Table of Contents. Updated 02/05/2014

15. Navigating the Manuals This is the Word Document that contains the actual policy. When you have a question, ask yourself “Where would I find that in the Manuals?” Remember, BAM is the “How To” guide for caseload activities. Notice some of the features of this page. These features are found on each page of the manuals. This is the Navigation Pane. You can enter a word or words to search in the search bar to find policy relating to specific programs or a circumstance. This view is for browsing the Item’s headings. This view is for browsing by pages. Here you can find the results of searches you have done. Updated 02/05/2014

16. Navigating the Manuals In In order to select an item to view, you must hold down the Ctrl key as you click on the item you wish to view. You will receive a message warning you that it may not be safe to open this file. It will be safe to open any files that are contained within the manuals, so select “OK” Updated 02/05/2014

17. Navigating the Manuals In order to demonstrate the search function, we have selected BAM 115-Application Processing. Before you start processing your first case in the training environment, you will need to know how much time you have to process a Food Assistance Program (FAP) application. This is known as the “Standard of Promptness” or SOP. Updated 02/05/2014

18. Searching the Manuals As you type your words, the first instance that meets your search criteria will appear in the Manual Item, highlighted in yellow. Each heading that also contains the word or words you are searching will be highlighted in the Navigation Pane. You can see that Standard of Promptness does appear as a heading. If you click on the tab, it will take you to the part of the Manual Item where this heading appears. The most thorough search can be accomplished by using the search bar in the Navigation Pane. Type the word or phrase you are looking for. There are several ways to search for the information you want. You can scroll through the headings in the Navigation Pane to see if what you are looking for appears as part of a heading. Updated 02/05/2014

19. Searching the Manuals The final box is a search box. Here you will enter the word or phrase you are searching. You are looking for a “Standard of Promptness”. Below the search box you have two choices, “Whole Word” and “Consider Case”. If you did not check the box for “Whole Word” the search engine will give you results that only partially matched your criteria. In this case, it would bring up every instance in BAM 115 where the word “of” appears, or any instance where the letters “o” and “f” appear together, even inside a word. If you check the box for “Consider Case”, the search will only yield results where all the upper and lower case letters match. There is an alternative way to search for information in the Manuals. At the Policy Manuals Home Page, on the left hand side, there are several drop boxes. First you must choose the Manual Group you wish to search. Bridges Policy has been selected. Next, select the Manual you want to search, based on what you need to know, and your knowledge of how the Manuals are “shaped” or ordered. In this example, select BAM. Now that you have entered all the criteria related to the information you are seeking, you can hit the “Search” button. To clear all the information and start over, click on “Reset”. Using the same example as your previous search, in the Item Drop Down box choose 115-Application Processing. Updated 02/05/2014

20. Searching the Manuals CLICK on “115 Application Processing” to see the results of the search. Once the search engine has completed the search, a message will appear letting you know results are available. Updated 02/05/2014

21. Searching the Manuals The results are displayed the same way for this type of search, with the headings in the Navigation Pane highlighted, and the actual instances of the phrase “standard of promptness” highlighted in the text of the Manual Item. Updated 02/05/2014

22. Additional Information Because the manuals are housed in Word documents, you can perform almost any function or shortcut in the manuals that you can perform in any other protected Word document. For instance, “CTRL + G” to jump to a certain page: You can check a previous version of policy by changing the “Effective Date” found at the top of the Policy Manuals Home Page: Updated 02/05/2014

23. Additional Information One additional feature of the manuals you will want to take note of is “Change Bars”. These are vertical bars to the right of the policy text. They appear when the text has changed in that area of the policy. The date the policy changed appears in the header. The change bar will remain until this particular page in the manual is updated again. Updated 02/05/2014

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