An official State of Texas website.
Revision 18-1; Effective December 19, 2018
Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) staff with security access use a Web-based application to log in to the administrative terminal (AT) at http://www.ebtedge.com/gov/portal/PortalHome.do to issue and replace Lone Star cards and personal identification number (PIN) packets. Staff also use the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system to perform such functions as inquiry, account transaction update to the vendor database and, in certain very restricted situations, priority Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit authorization.
5100 Security Access
Revision 17-1; Effective May 5, 2017
Field staff designated to have access to the EBT system are:
- Regional Office:
- EBT regional coordinator
- Backup staff
Note: The regional director (RD) appoints the EBT regional coordinator and notifies EBT Program Operations of the appointment within 10 workdays.
- Local Office:
- EBT site coordinator
- EBT clerk
- Backup persons
Responsible staff must complete and submit the electronic local/benefit office EBT System User Access Request form found on the EBT Program Operations website at https://oss.txhhsc.txnet.state.tx.us/sites/eo/support/lsbs/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/SitePages/LSBS%20Forms.aspx within 10 workdays to the EBT regional coordinator or designee to request the:
- addition of newly assigned staff to an EBT position,
- deletion of EBT staff vacating an EBT position, or
- modification of the level of access for EBT staff changing EBT positions.
Note: EBT user access is limited to only one user group. Terminated employees are reported immediately to the EBT regional coordinator.
The EBT regional coordinator or designee keeps the EBT system access permission request for three years after the EBT staff person vacates the EBT position.
The EBT site coordinator updates the local/benefit office security procedures to reflect changes in EBT staff.
5200 Benefit Entry Restriction
Revision 18-1; Effective December 19, 2018
EBT staff may be required to issue benefits via the EBT Administrative Terminal (AT) system under certain very restricted situations. If TIERS is unavailable for an extended period, Field Operations (FO) requests Lone Star Business Services temporarily activate benefit issuance permissions for EBT staff and notifies EBT regional coordinators to begin issuing priority SNAP benefits via the EBT AT. Form H1000-A, Notice of Application (NOA) numbers are provided to EBT regional coordinators by FO and are required in the EBT AT to issue benefits.
5300 EBT Administrative Terminal Report
Revision 17-2; Effective May 19, 2017
Each day, the EBT site coordinator or backup staff must reconcile the administrative terminal report (EBTDS303-1) with Form H1172, EBT Card, PIN and Data Entry Request; Form H1173, EBT Card Issuance and PIN Self-Selection/Vendor Mail; Form H1175, Authorization for Administrative Terminal Application Action; and other appropriate documents, and perform inquiry on TIERS to confirm data entries. This includes the reconciliation of EBT system reports for weekends and holidays that are reconciled on the next workday.
Note: Form H1173 is not required for reconciliation of vendor-mailed cards.
The Client Status column on the EBTDS303-1 will contain one of the following values to indicate that activity listed is part of a series of events resulting from a single action taken by the user.
Definitions for this activity:
Split: This activity cannot be performed by local office staff, please contact your EBT Regional Coordinator and provide them with the Form H1175 when two EDG’s connected to the same Lone Star card need to be split from each other due to an error by the agency. This action is performed from the Partial Match cases and will display on the EBTDS303-1 Report as a split.
Merge: This activity is performed by the EBT Site Coordinator using the Form H1175 when two existing EDG’s need to be attached to the same Lone Star card. This action is performed from the Partial Match cases and will display on the EBTDS303-1 Report as a merge.
Split/Merge: This activity is performed by the EBT clerk using the Form H1172 when a new EDG is added to an existing EDG. This action is performed on the Case/Client List by selecting “Add Case” to attach two EDG’s to the same card. This action will display on the EBTDS303-1 Report as a split/merge.
The EBT site coordinator or backup staff must sign or initial and date the EBT system report to validate reconciliation. Staff may use a reconciliation form to document the reconciliation of the EBT system report. Retain EBT reports for three years from the date of reconciliation.
Note: Review and document EBT reports from regional administrative offices weekly to ensure that unauthorized activities have not occurred.
Regional security procedures must identify the person responsible for ensuring that EBT system reconciliations are performed daily.
When an on-site security review is conducted, EBT reports for all local/benefit offices must be checked to ensure that no unauthorized activity occurred. The EBT regional coordinator must periodically review the reconciliation reports for administrative offices.
5400 Physical Security
Revision 17-1; Effective May 5, 2017
The local/benefit office EBT staff must ensure physical security of the EBT system, including data security. Staff must ensure EBT computers are placed so that individuals passing by cannot view the monitor screen.
5500 EBT Archive
Revision 17-1; Effective May 5, 2017
The EBT Archive stores benefit issuance and transaction detail for SNAP and TANF.
Staff authorized to have access to the EBT Archive are: