Medicaid enrollees last week top 3,600

More than 3,600 people enrolled in Arkansas’ expanded Medicaid program last week, bringing to 14,079 the number of newly eligible adults signed up for coverage that will start Jan. 1, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services said Tuesday.

The new enrollees are among the 66,094 people who have applied for coverage under the program since last month, when the department solicited applications from more than 145,000 recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, Human Services Department spokesman Amy Webb said.

Of those who were determined to be eligible and who completed applications, 4,022 were designated as medically “frail,” on the basis of responses to questions about their health status, and were assigned to the traditional Medicaid program rather than the expanded program.

The other 10,057 used a state website to sign up for coverage that Medicaid will purchase for them in a private plan offered on Arkansas’ insurance exchange under the so-called private option.

Webb said the department has been pleased with the pace of enrollment since it began Oct. 1.

“Our goal is to make sure people who need health care get it, and it looks like that is happening through the private option,” Webb said.

State Sen. Jonathan Dismang, a sponsor of the legislation authorizing the expansion of Medicaid under the private option, said enrollment would likely be higher were it not for problems that have plagued healthcare.gov, the federal website allowing people to apply for Medicaid as well as for tax credits to help them buy coverage in private plans.

“You’re not going to keep opening up a laptop that gives you an error message over and over and over again,” Dismang, R-Searcy, said. “I think it hinders the process and makes it more difficult.”

President Barack Obama on Monday promised a “tech surge” to fix glitches that have prevented many people from being able to apply for assistance or shop for coverage on the federal website.

Webb said the Human Services Department has not received any reports of problems with a pair of state websites that provide another avenue for people to apply for Medicaid.

Applicants can start the process at access.arkansas.gov. Those who are found to be eligible are then directed to another site, insureark.org, where they can complete a questionnaire designed to identify people considered medically frail. Those who are not declared medically frail can complete the enrollment process on insureark.org by choosing a private plan.

A total of about 250,000 Arkansas 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 - are expected to qualify for the expanded Medicaid program.

About 90 percent are expected to be covered by private plans subsidized by Medicaid, with the remaining 10 percent assigned to the traditional Medicaid program because of their exceptional health needs.

Most of the applications submitted so far - 62,021 - have come in response to a letter sent last month to 145,370 food-stamp recipients whom the department determined have incomes qualifying them for Medicaid assistance.

An additional 2,344 applications have been submitted through access.arkansas.gov, and 1,729 were submitted over the phone or through paper applications, Webb said.

An applicant who is deemed eligible for the expanded Medicaid program is given 12 days to choose a private plan through insureark.org. If the applicant fails to choose a plan, he will be automatically assigned to one and will then be given 30 days to switch plans if he wants, Webb said.

The department has not yet automatically assigned anyone to a plan, she said.

Human Services Department Director John Selig has said it’s not surprising that those with exceptional health needs were among the first to sign up for coverage.

If problems with the federal website persist, Dismang said, it could discourage healthy people from signing up.

Insurance companies would then likely raise the premiums paid by consumers as well as by Medicaid.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said that almost 500,000 people have applied for coverage through health exchanges across the country, but it has not said how many have successfully enrolled.

People who qualify for Medicaid can enroll for coverage throughout the year. The enrollment period for others signing up for individual insurance coverage for next year started Oct. 1 and ends March 31.

Those who fail to obtain coverage for 2014 face penalties of $95 each or 1 percent of their incomes, whichever is greater.

Dolores Chitwood, an insurance agent in Fort Smith who serves on an advisory group for Arkansas’ insurance exchange, said she and an assistant have tried every day to access the enrollment features of healthcare.gov, so far without success.

She said she is considering using paper applications to help enroll low-income clients in Medicaid, and she plans to contact other clients once the federal website becomes functional, something she hopes will happen by mid-November.

“What we try to tell our clients is, this is not a situation that everybody feels positive about, but it is a situation that is here and it has to be dealt with and/or you have to be prepared to pay the fine,” Chitwood said.

“We just all have to be patient.”