Sawyer County highlights 0% food-share error rate; region to establish quality‑assurance team

Shauna, an economic-support supervisor for Sawyer County, told the Health & Human Services board that a recent Northern Consortium review found zero food‑share errors in the cases pulled for audit, resulting in “a 0% error rate.”

The board was told that state funding is being used to create a consortium QA unit to maintain low error rates. The plan calls for five QA reviewers plus a lead position, with counties contributing staff based on population size. Sawyer County staff member Kim Christensen was named among local candidates being considered for the QA unit, and the county intends to backfill any positions moved into the regional team.

County staff described the QA work as a combination of call-center duties and structured case reviews (the intent is to stagger QA assignments so casework continuity and answer‑rate performance are preserved). Officials said the QA review quota will include sampling a share of cases — roughly 25% in the initial plan — to monitor computation and eligibility errors tied to CARES worker‑web data entry.

Shauna and other staff emphasized that maintaining a low error rate is critical because federal oversight ties consequences to state error performance; the QA consortium is framed as both a compliance and workforce strategy. The board discussed pursuing trainings and a quality‑assurance lead who could be promoted from consortium staff once the unit is established.

Next steps: staff will finalize the consortium plan, begin staggered staff transitions to avoid service disruption, and track error‑rate metrics to ensure the county maintains compliance.