VOCA funds comprised approximately 28% of the program?s total dollars paid to victims for the 2008 federal fiscal year.  Based on average payments per claim, this equates to approximately 448 victims of crime served with VOCA funds.  With the assistance of the VOCA grant the Idaho victim compensation program was able to successfully manage increases in payments made for treatment and sexual assault forensic examinations and increases in benefits that were made available to victims of crime in our state over the past several years.  





Over the past year and a half the program has experienced significant increases in payments made on behalf of eligible victims, primarily due to increased costs for medical treatment and services.  Despite little change in the number of applications filed in fiscal year 2007, costs related to medical treatment and services increased 38%.  These rising costs completely exhausted the program?s appropriation for the 2007 and 2008 state fiscal years.  As a way to help control rising costs, the program implemented a 25% proportionate reduction in all payments made on behalf of victims.  Despite these actions, the program had a $150,000 carry over in expenditures from state fiscal year 2007 to 2008 and a $450,000 carryover from state fiscal year 2008 to 2009.  To address the 2009 carryover, the program requested a supplemental appropriation, from the Idaho state legislature, to prevent the carryover from overburdening the funds available to for payments on behalf of victims. 





Payment trends for fiscal year 2009 indicate that medical costs are continuing to climb and that payments made on behalf of victims will again exceed the program?s appropriation.  To help manage these growing costs, the program extended the 25% proportionate reduction in payment for the entirety of fiscal year 2009.  Unfortunately, Idaho law does not preclude treatment providers from billing crime victims the balance of their unpaid bill, after the program has made payment on their behalf.  We are currently researching alternative cost containment measures that better insulate victims from being billed for any unpaid balances.





Over the past several years the Idaho state legislature has added many new benefits to assist victims of crime in Idaho.  Expansions in mental health benefits to victims and their family members, funeral benefits, and payment responsibility for sexual assault forensic examinations have come without any additional state funding to offset the costs of these benefits.  





Despite the addition of these benefits and increases in payments made on behalf of victims, state funding mechanisms have remained unchanged for approximately 18 years, resulting in annual program expenses exceeding available state funds.  Funding received through the VOCA grant helps to close the gap between expenses paid on behalf of victims and revenues collected from offenders in our state.  Without VOCA funds to assist the program, the program would not have been able to manage the increases in payments and benefits, and would likely had to take more drastic measures to reduce payments and potentially the benefits available to crime victims. 





Through the VOCA grant, the program also receives funding one full time employee, who is solely devoted towards recovering money from offenders.  This funding helped to generate approximately $396,223 in revenue in the 2008 state fiscal year.  This is money that would largely have gone uncollected without the VOCA funding to offset the expenses related to our recovery personnel. The revenue generated through our recovery efforts help to ensure funding for future victims of crime.

The program measures the following activities in determining effectiveness and efficiency in reducing the financial impact of crime on victims:





Claim processing time.  Just about every event dealing with processing a claim is measured, utilizing our automated system to generate statistical reports for any period of time needed.  Our measurements are as detailed as the average number of days needed to enter an application (date it was received by the program to when it was physically entered into the data base) to more global measurements such as, the average time taken to make an eligibility decision (date the application was received by the program to the date an eligibility decision was made).  All measurements are based on averages for all claims processed within that time frame.  The following are examples of some of our measurements:





Measurement (description of measurement)     Result


A. Average time to enter an application        11 days


     (date application received to date entered into database)





B. Average time for law enforcement and prosecutors to submit    21 days


     documentation.  (date requested to date all documentation received)





C. Average time to make eligibility decision on appl.   57 days


     (date application received to date eligibility decision made)





D. Average time to make payment on an application    131 days


     (date application received to date of first payment)





E. Average time to make payment after award of benefits   27 days


     (date of award of benefits to date of first payment)





F. Utilization of compensation benefits     65%


     (awarded claims that actually utilized benefits)


  


There are other performance measurements that are tracked and can be furnished upon request.