53,462 in state now enrolled in expanded Medicaid

Notices went out Tuesday to more than 40,000 food stamp recipients informing them that they have been automatically assigned to a private health-insurance plan under the state’s expanded Medicaid program, the state Department of Human Services announced.

The automatic enrollments take the number of newly eligible people who have been added to the Medicaid program for coverage that will start Jan. 1 to 53,462.

That includes 49,151 who chose or were assigned to a private plan and 4,311 who were assigned to the traditional program because they were deemed to have exceptional health needs.

Among those who expect to receive a notice is Vickie Gray, a 57-year-old home health-care worker who lives in Little Rock and has been uninsured for more than a year.

A food-stamp recipient, Gray said she responded to a September letter from the Human Services Department and told the agency that she wanted coverage. But she couldn’t decide which plan to choose by the Oct. 15 deadline she was given, so she decided to let the state choose for her.

“I’m probably going to be happy with whatever they give me,” Gray said. “I’m not the type of person who goes to the doctor a lot.”

The expansion of the Medicaid program, authorized by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and approved by the Legislature this year, extended eligibility for coverage to about 250,000 adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level - $15,860 for an individual or $32,500 for a family of four.

Most of those who enroll are expected to be able to sign up for a private plan on the state’s health-insurance exchange and have their premium paid by Medicaid. About 10 percent - those identified as “medically frail” because of their health-care needs - will be assigned to the traditional Medicaid program.

The 40,405 who were assigned to a plan Tuesday are among 145,000 recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program who received letters from the department in September informing them that they are eligible for coverage under the expanded program.

Those who responded and said they wanted coverage were sent a notice giving them 12 days to visit a state website, insureark.org, where they would be asked to complete a questionnaire designed to identify the medically frail. Applicants who are not found to be medically frail can then use the website to sign up for a plan.

The automatic assignments affect 38,376 people who indicated that they wanted coverage but did not visit the website, as well as 2,029 who completed the questionnaire but failed to select a plan after it was determined they were not medically frail.

The notices sent Tuesday will give the recipients 30 days to switch plans if they choose. After that, the next opportunity to change plans will be in a year.

The assignments were made according to a formula designed to insure a minimum market share for each of the four companies offering plans on the insurance exchange. The minimum share of the market ranges from 33 percent to 20 percent, depending on the number of insurers serving each of seven regions of the state.

After the minimum share was reached, the department made assignments evenly among the companies in the coverage region.

Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the only companies offering plans in all 75 counties, received the most assignments. Arkansas Blue Cross was assigned 16,480 food-stamp recipients, taking its total Medicaid enrollment to 19,612.

The national association received 16,807 assignments, taking its state Medicaid enrollment to 18,802.

St. Louis-based Centene Corp.’s Arkansas Health and Wellness Solutions, which is offering plans in 29 counties, received 6,118 assignments, taking its enrollment to 9,457.

Little Rock-based Qual-Choice Health Insurance, which is offering plans in 51 counties, received 1,000 assignments, taking its enrollment to 1,280.

The figures show Arkansas Health and Wellness Solutions, the only company with plans that include adult vision and dental coverage, leads in enrollment statewide among recipients who chose their own plans through the state website, with 3,339 enrollments.

It was trailed by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which had 3,132 enrollments through the website, the national Blue Cross Association, which had 1,995, and Qual-Choice, which had 280.

QualChoice Chief Executive Officer Mike Stock noted that Centene Corp.’s Novasys Health LLC is the company that administers the Medicaid-funded ARHealthNetworks program, which provides coverage to small-business employees.

The Human Services Department plans to phase out that program, which covers about 23,000 people, at the end of this year.

“My guess is that a lot of the people that proactively picked [Arkansas Health and Wellness Solutions] already have a relationship with ARHealthNet,” Stock said.

Although Gray can access the Internet from her cellphone, she said she’s “not really good with computers” and doesn’t have one in her home.

A few days before the Oct. 15 deadline, she went to an educational event at a grocery store in southwest Little Rock, hoping someone would be able to help her look at the plans. Instead, a worker handed her a brochure.

A couple of days later, while at the State Fair with her son, she spoke with an outreach worker who gave her more information, but she still wasn’t sure which plan would be best.

She said she has been seeing doctors at a charitable clinic in southwest Little Rock but hopes the insurance company she was assigned will connect her with doctors who can better understand the allergies that have been making her cough, sneeze and itch for the past two years.

Insurance is “something you need to have in life,” she said.

“It gives you peace of mind,” she said.