Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2021, $215,000)
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office Crime Victim Services (CVS) section respectfully requests a project scope change to award number 15POVC-21-GK-01102-NONF.
As as all previous project objectives have been met, the Ohio Attorney General's Office now has the opportunity to bridge a technology gap through data collection. By upgrading its Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) software, the Ohio Attorney General's Office will further improve outcomes and services to victims and survivors.
The goal of the SAFE program is to bring uniformity to sexual assault evidence collection throughout Ohio. On average, SAFE reimburses over $3.5 million to medical facilities offering forensic medical examinations to children and adults.
SAFE provides for a comprehensive medical assessment related to the sexual trauma and forensic evidence collection of a victim of sexual assault for the purpose of gathering evidence for a possible prosecution. The program makes forensic exams available to all victims of sexual assault, regardless of ability to pay or report to law enforcement.
SAFE pays for the cost of a forensic examination and the antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent sexually transmitted infections. The program reimburses medical facilities directly in the hopes of reducing the burden of dealing with billing issues for survivors of sexual assault.
The current, outdated software used for the SAFE Program is in desperate need of replacement. CVS currently has no way to monitor whether victims/survivors are being passed off and forced to travel from one health-care provider to another for the testing they are allowed, and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office currently has no way to track whether the survivors themselves are being charged for services they are entitled to receive for free.
The grant project's current goals and objectives are:
Goal 1: Ensure that all victims of crime in Ohio have an easy to understand guide to all available services in the State of Ohio
Objective 1.1: Upgrade the Grants Management System used by the CVS Grants Unit
Objective 1.2: Increase victims served throughout the state by increasing visibility through the centralized resource database.
Goal 2: Ensure victims are able to access services faster by providing reimbursement through multiple grant programs to victim services providers from a centralized grants management system
Objective 2.1: Decrease the maximum reimbursement timeline for victims of crime to 10 days or less.
CVS has ensured that all victims of crime in Ohio have an easy to understand guide to all available services in the State of Ohio through the upgrade of the Grants Management System used by the CVS Grants Unit. CVS has increased victims served throughout the state by increasing visibility through the centralized resource database. At the time of the project's inception, CVS had planned that the database would be available in both English and Spanish. However, from the time of the grant application to the time of the start of the project, the vendor CVS used (Jungle Lasers) was no longer providing a translation to Spanish service.
CVS has also ensured that victims are able to access services faster by providing reimbursement through multiple grant programs to victim services providers from a centralized grants management system. CVS has decreased the maximum reimbursement timeline for victims of crime to 10 days or less.
As these objectives have already been met, a third goal and an additional objective will be added to the grant project . That additional goal and objective are:
Goal 3: Ensure uniformity to sexual assault evidence collection throughout Ohio
Objective 3.1: Track 100% of claims from start to finish to ensure survivors are not being charged for services they are entitled to receive for free
The project to build a database for the SAFE program will begin in June 2024 and finish in September 2025. The software is set to go live at the end of July 2025. A detailed timeline is attached.