Florida Non-profit lobbying for fix to 'failing' call center for SNAP and Medicaid applicants
A local nonprofit is trying to get the state to fix glitches with an online system that's cost people their healthcare and SNAP benefits.
Channel 9 has spent more than a year digging into these problems, but the Florida Department of Children and Families has consistently blamed users for the trouble they've had uploading documents, completing required interviews, and getting benefits.
However, in April, Channel 9 uncovered records showing the agency has known about problems all along.
Jared Nordlund told Channel 9 he stumbled on a 9 Investigates' report on the issues his non-profit has been investigating as well.
Nordlund is the Florida State Director for UnidosUS, a non-profit that serves as the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, that in part focuses on health equity.
Just weeks after the new my access portal for Snap and Medicaid applicants launched, his organization conducted dozens of test calls and discovered 8 in ten calls to the state's applicant hotline would disconnect before callers got through to a live agent.
'The state will say that the website or the call center has like a 99% uptime … but the actual functionality was breaking down,' said Nordlund.
Nordlund told Channel 9 UnidosUS brought their reports to state lawmakers, who budgeted over 12 million to improve the call center last year.
According to Nordlund, UnidosUS made 348 new test calls to the Medicaid line between September and February 2025.
The non-profit found the disconnect rate dropped from 80 percent to just five percent for English speakers.
However, according to their report, 45% of the Spanish language calls were still disconnected before reaching an agent, which is approximately nine times the rate for English speakers.
According to the non-profit, 'These failures disproportionately impact low-income, rural and immigrant communities, where internet access is limited.'
UnidosUS is now lobbying for additional money in this year's budget to fix the call center for Spanish language speakers. They are also advocating for fixes to the online glitches.
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