CSLNews

Message from Sharon A. Santilli, CSLN Administrator

In February 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 into law. One of the act’s provisions empowers the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement to exchange delinquent obligor information maintained in its Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) files with insurance companies and agents to find claims, settlements and other insurance payments that can be collected for past-due child support. States will continue to have the option to join CSLN to conduct insurance matches and, for quality assurance, to process liens or levies. Insurers and state child support programs not currently part of the CSLN partnership can still benefit by joining the ISO/CSLN data exchange.

The new law is not a mandate for insurance intercept; rather, it authorizes the FPLS to share its delinquent obligor data with insurers for purposes of obtaining matching claim data from those companies. The CSLN partnership already provides insurers and states with a single, centralized process that meets the Deficit Reduction Act’s objectives while returning matched data in a responsible way.

The ISO/CSLN interface’s voluntary membership enables insurers to release claim data to CSLN without incurring any additional cost. Utilizing the services of CSLN, states can receive matches that have been pre-qualified by CSLN as open, active claims available for immediate collection activities. The ISO/CSLN data exchange has demonstrated itself as a terrific arrears collection and locate resource that lends to the financial improvement in the lives of thousands of families.

Though CSLN’s history shows less than 1 percent of participating insurers’ total claims match a child support record, those claim matches have produced an estimated $48 million annually in child support collections. Our projections indicate that if all states and insurers use the CSLN process, close to $1 billion in annual collections could be realized for children nationwide.

The current ISO/CSLN data exchange is a proven and tested program used by more than 1,000 insurers and 23 states across the country. CSLN’s secure, Web-enabled system, management reports and quality assurance services provide the best vehicle for the transfer of newly acquired data from any future FPLS interface.

I encourage insurers and state child support programs not participating in the ISO/CSLN partnership to join. CSLN looks forward to providing continued success to all the stakeholders in the process.

For more information about CSLN visit
www.childsupportliens.com
or contact
George French, CSLN Director, at (781) 848-5180.