Compiling & Reporting IEFs
Maryann Durrant (USBE):
Once IEFs are approved, you’ll want to compile all of the information in one place. We call this a master list. The master list should include each participant’s name and their benefit category. It’s important to keep your master list updated. We would recommend updating your master list each month. You’ll want to save the previous versions of the master list rather than just adding and subtracting names from your existing master list. When we come to do a review, we will ask to see the master list from the month we’re reviewing. If you’ve just been amending the list that you have, you won’t be able to pull up a master list from a previous month.
This is an example of a master list. It has more than just the benefit category on it, which you’re welcome to include, but as long as you have the name and benefit category of each participant, you’ve met the requirements. You’re required to have an updated master list. You can keep an electric copy or a hard copy of your master list. If you keep an electric copy, be sure that you have a back up for it. When we come to do a review, we’ll ask to see the master list from the month we’re looking at. Make sure that your master lists are updated and easily located.
Now on to reporting the IEF information. At least one time per year, you’ll report the number of free, reduced, and paid participants who are enrolled at your facility. This is called establishing your claiming percentages. You’ll establish your claiming percentages in October of each year, which is the beginning of the federal fiscal year. The reimbursement you receive is calculated based on the numbers of free, reduced, and paid participants you report. We’ll go through an example so you can see how this would work. Let’s say that you have 150 participants enrolled during the month of October. 53 participants qualify at the free rate, 22 at the reduced rate, and 75 at the paid rate. If we do a bit of math we learn that 35% of the participants are qualify at the free rate, 15% at the reduced rate, and 50% at the paid rate. This means that 35% of all of the meals you claim will be reimbursed at the free rate, 15% will be reimbursed at the reduced rate and 50% at the paid rate. Even if your enrollment changes and you get more paid participants, you’ll still get reimbursed in these percentages. You’ll get reimbursed these percentages regardless of which participants ate at which meals. Let’s say the majority of your participants who qualify at the free rate were absent one day, 35% of the meals you serve will still get reimbursed at the free rate.
You are able to update your claiming percentages during the year as needed. If the number of free, reduced, and paid participants changes, you contact our office and we can update the numbers for you. We would recommend that you only update your numbers if it results in a higher reimbursement for your organization. This isn’t cheating the system or being dishonest, we want you to be able to get the most reimbursement that you’re eligible to receive. The claiming percentages you establish in October each year are valid for an entire year, so stick with those unless updating your claiming percentages will work in your favor. Something you’ll want to take note of is that on a review, we will look at all of the IEFs from the month you established your claiming percentages. So let’s say you established your claiming percentages in October and we came out in April of the following year. We would look at the IEFs that were valid during the month of October to verify that your claiming percentages were calculated correctly. It’s important that you make sure you can locate the master list and the IEFs from your claiming percentage month.
This information applies only to for-profit organizations. For-profit refers to how your organization is set up as a business. If you are a non-profit or a public operation, this information doesn’t apply to you. For-profit organizations must qualify each month in order to claim at all on the food program. At least 25% of the enrolled participants each month must qualify at the free or reduced rate, regardless of what your claiming percentages are. You’ll report the number of free and reduced participants you have enrolled each month when you submit the number of meals served for reimbursement.
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