The number of food stamp recipients who enrolled in the state’s expanded Medicaid program since Oct. 1 shows “that there is a need,” a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services said Tuesday.
Since the start of enrollment at the beginning of the month, 10,454 recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have enrolled through a state website, Human Services Department spokesman Amy Webb said.
Of those, 7,481 will receive coverage through a private plan purchased by the Medicaid program on Arkansas’ health-insurance exchange.
The remaining 2,973 enrollees - 28 percent of the total - were assigned to the traditional Medicaid program because of their answers on a questionnaire on the website, insureark.org, designed to identify people with exceptional health-care needs.
The enrollment numbers “continue to show that there are working poor and low-income Arkansans who need coverage and are interested in applying and doing what they can to get coverage,” Webb said.
State Medicaid Director Andy Allison has said that the criteria used to identify the medically frail will be adjusted to ensure that no more than 10 percent of those qualifying for the expanded Medicaid program are assigned to the traditional program, rather than given private coverage purchased by Medicaid.
Human Services Department Director John Selig said he wasn’t surprised that the first enrollees include a higher percentage of those considered medically frail.
“We knew those with the greatest medical needs would be the most eager to enroll,” Selig said in a news release Tuesday.
“This shows a need for us to continue our outreach efforts to younger and healthier people who are eligible for the [private insurance] program.”
The Human Services Department has estimated about 250,000 adult Arkansans are eligible for Medicaid coverage under the expansion of the program approved by the Legislature this year.
Authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the expansion extended coverage to 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.
So far, those who have been approved for Medicaid were among 145,370 food-stamp recipients who received letters from the Human Services Department last month notifying them of their eligibility for the expanded program.
More than 55,000 people responded to those letters, saying they wanted to enroll.Earlier this month, the Human Services Department sent those respondents a second letter directing them to insureark.org, where they could complete the enrollment.
Webb said 1,780 of those who returned the first letter later changed their minds or were deemed ineligible because of their eligibility for other programs such as Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly, Webb said.
The 43,206 people who responded to the first letter, but have yet to complete enrollment at insureark.org, will be assigned automatically to a private plan this month if they fail to visit the website. They will then have 30 days to change plans. After that, their next opportunity to change plans will be in one year, Webb said.
People who qualify for Medicaid can enroll for coverage throughout the year.
Others applying for coverage in private plans for 2014 are limited to an enrollment period that began Oct. 1 and runs through March 31. They also can sign up after certain life events, such as the loss of a job.
In addition to applications from the food-stamp recipients, the Human Services Department received 1,509 applications through another website, access.arkansas.gov, and 1,119 phone and paper applications from Oct. 1 through Saturday.
Those who are determined to be eligible for expanded Medicaid will be directed toinsureark.org to complete enrollment, Webb said.
After completing a questionnaire on the website about health needs, those who are determined not to have exceptional health needs can use the site to choose a plan, Webb said.
The site offers side-by-side comparisons of the plans’ benefits and any required copay, as well as links to the plans’ benefit summaries, drug formularies and the providers in their networks, Webb said.
Those who don’t qualify for Medicaid, but have incomes of less than 400 percent of the poverty level, may qualify for tax-credit subsidies to help them buy coverage through health-insurance exchanges in each state. The income threshold for those subsidies is $45,960 for an individual or $94,200 for a family of four.
Arkansas’ websites cannot be used to apply for the tax-credit subsidies, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is operating the exchange in Arkansas and more than 30 other states, has promised that a federal website, healthcare.gov, will allow people to apply for assistance and compare plans’ benefits and premiums.
Since the Oct. 1 start of enrollment, the federal site often has been overwhelmed by the number of visitors. The federal department has not released numbers on enrollment.
Kalena Jones, director of the Arkansas Health Care Access Foundation in Little Rock, said her organization’s five outreach workers have been advising people to try the federal website during “off-peak hours,” after 6 p.m.
One worker was able to help two people enroll through the federal website at a North Little Rock library last week, Jones said. She also heard from a woman and her daughter who were able to sign up Oct. 5 at 11:30 p.m.
Jones said she set up an account on the site one day last week about 5:45 p.m. But when she tried again the next evening she got error messages.
“It’s hit-and-miss,” she said.
When the website doesn’t work, she said her organization, one of more than two dozen hired by the state Insurance Department to provide workers for the enrollment effort, has been helping fill out paper forms that can be sent to the Heath and Human Services Department to start the application process.
People also can enroll by calling the federal agency at (800) 318-2596.
The paper application “may not be as quick as we’d like it, but it’s still effective,” Jones said.
“We’re having to be flexible and work around the consumer’s needs.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/16/2013