Staffers at the Missouri Capitol were abuzz last month when NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal spent time posing for photographs and shaking hands in the historic House Lounge.

But his presence in the Capitol prompted an obvious question: Why was O’Neal in Jefferson City?

O’Neal is a part-owner of Steady, a company that’s partnering with the Department of Social Services to help verify income for Medicaid, food assistance programs and temporary assistance for needy families.

In a brief interview with St. Louis Public Radio, he said the Steady platform amounts to a “win-win.”

“It helps save the taxpayers some money. It helps get people their benefits and get them real quick,” O’Neal said. “And it helps the administration cut down on costs.”

DSS officials launched the SteadyIQ pilot program several years ago and announced they were rolling out the platform to the general public last month.

Marcel Crudele, chief strategy officer for Steady, said participants provide their income source information — which can be a bank or digital wallet such as PayPal or Venmo. SteadyIQ then compiles the income data into a report that can be sent to state officials, Crudele said,

“So the income verification part is more accurate and much faster for them to do, and that accelerates the ability to make a determination,” Crudele said.

Steady chief commercial officer James Haberlen said the platform should provide a quicker response to applicants about whether they qualify for a program and make it easier for the state to process applications more efficiently.

“The state has a solution that can unify how income verification is done to both help the case worker on the state side be more efficient, but also the clients that are looking to get public benefits as quickly as possible,” Haberlen said.

Michelle Wolf, Department of Social Services’ deputy director of the family support division, said SteadyIQ is preferable to a cumbersome process that requires applicants to either gather screenshots or print out paystubs for state officials.

“It was very labor intensive, not only for the participant or applicant by gathering screenshots or printouts, but it’s also labor intensive for the state agency to take those screenshots or printouts and add them together to calculate a monthly income,” Wolf said. “So it’s very labor intensive and prone to error.”

A broader trend

Kimberly Enard, an associate professor of health management and policy at St. Louis University, sees DSS’ embrace of Steady’s technology as part of a broader trend for state social service agencies.

“I think we’ve seen a lot of improvements and changes over the past decade or so in how people who are applying for these types of benefits are able to do so,” Enard said. “It really hasn’t been that long ago when people actually had to show up in person to do this.”

After the passage of the Affordable Care Act in the early 2010s, Enard said states began to modernize application processes. She added that if artificial intelligence programs continue to evolve and improve, more states could implement similar technologies like SteadyIQ.

“I think it’s going to become more and more common as we leverage technology more to streamline some of these processes,” she said.

Enard said one aspect that states like Missouri should watch closely is how these types of technologies protect an applicant’s data.

“I do think there probably are going to be some people who have some concerns about having this type of technology access their information,” she said.

One particular challenge for Department of Social Services officials is that people who may qualify for Medicaid or SNAP food assistance may not have easy access to smartphones or computers with reliable internet access.

Wolf said that since SteadyIQ is browser based, an applicant can access it at a library or at a relative’s house.

“There is some flexibility on how to use this,” she said.

Wolf said the platform won’t cut someone off benefits if their income goes over the limit for a particular program. For instance: Medicaid has a $34,341-a-year maximum for a family of three.

“This will be used in applications,” Wolf said. “We will explore what other options there are to use this technology in the future. But it’s not about looking to cut anyone off. It’s about getting timely and accurate benefits to everyone who applies and who meets this.”