C-860, Birth Verification System

Revision 12-3; Effective July 1, 2012

All Programs

The Birth Verification System (BVS) is a system developed and maintained by the Department of State Health Services (DSHS). The BVS database includes birth records of people who were born in Texas.

Advisors access BVS as a source to verify age, relationship and citizenship. Perform a separate request for each individual.

C—861 Accessing BVS in TIERS

Revision 12-3; Effective July 1, 2012

All Programs

BVS inquiry can only be performed when the TIERS case is in read/write mode. From the left navigation bar select Individual from Data Collections to access birth verification information. This displays the Individual Household page, which lists all household members. Click the Edit icon for the appropriate individual. This displays the Individual Information page.

A BVS icon appears on the Individual Information page, near the page title. The icon consists of a circle with the letters BV in it. Click the icon to display the page. TIERS displays the Birth Verification – Details page, displaying the initial demographic information for the individual, individual’s first, middle and last name, gender, and date of birth. Select the Birth County (if available) and enter Mother’s full Maiden Name (if available), then click the Submit button.

TIERS sends an online request to BVS. BVS conducts an online real-time verification of birth information and displays the information on the details page.

Note: TIERS does not display historical birth verification information. If staff make another BVS request for an individual, TIERS generates a new request to the BVS system.

C—861.1 BVS Field Entries and Descriptions

Revision 13-1; Effective January 1, 2013

All Programs

TIERS displays the Birth Verification – Details page, displaying the initial demographic information for the individual:

• child's last, first and middle name,
• date of birth, and
• gender.

Birth County — Select the birth county from the drop-down menu. Note: Although not a required field, entering the county code shortens the search.

Mother's Maiden Name (optional field) — Enter mother’s full maiden name if available; this is an optional field. Do not enter a single letter, numerical value, spaces or special characters.

Once the BVS request is submitted, the request is transmitted to DSHS. DSHS returns the following response information when there is response from DSHS indicates a positive match:

• mother’s maiden name,
• certificate no.,
• father's name, and
• birth county.

Status — This field displays one of the following responses to the request submitted.

Y = Match Found

M = Multiple Records Exist

N = No Match Found

F = Fraudulent Record

D = Individual is Deceased

S = Birth File Read Error

T = Invalid Date of Birth

X = Unknown Error. Call Help Desk

When a match is not received, staff must review entries for accuracy and resubmit the BVS request.

Message — The following exception messages are displayed when a response is not received and the request and response have caused some type of exception. This means there is an error with the system or the data. Call the HHSC Help Desk if problems persist at 512-438-4720.

Message Codes	Descriptions
20745	Unable to send MQ message. Please try again later and contact Help Desk if problem persists.
20732	Invalid data received in the response. Please try again later and contact Help Desk if problem persists.
20731	Response timed out. Please try again later and contact Help Desk if problem persists.
20730	An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again later and contact Help Desk if problem persists.