A legislative task force will present its alternatives to Arkansas' so-called private option for expanded Medicaid coverage to Gov. Asa Hutchinson by Dec. 15, its co-chairman said Tuesday.
The private option, which expanded health insurance coverage to more poor Arkansans by using federal funds to subsidize the cost, is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2016.
"We don't have days to waste," task force co-chairman Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, said at the group's meeting Tuesday. "We really are behind the eight ball."
The task force will hire a consulting group to assist it with the report, with a report from the chosen consultant due to the task force by Oct. 1.
The task force plans to release a request for proposals from consulting groups next week and have it out for bid for one month before hiring a consultant in mid-May.
The Health Reform Legislative Task Force was created by Act 46, sponsored by Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, and signed last month by Hutchinson, who is Hendren's uncle.
The law calls for the task force to recommend "an alternative healthcare coverage model" by the end of this year that would replace the private option no later than Jan. 1, 2017. The law requires that the task force "shall file ... a written report of the task force's activities, findings and recommendations" on or before Dec. 31 this year.
"That deadline is something that is fixed into the law, and we have to figure it out," Hendren told fellow task force members. "The fact is, if we just sit here and talk amongst ourselves for a year, 14 or 15 months from now, we all know what's going to happen. There are some real hard deadlines that are going to be pretty brutal for the state of Arkansas if we don't accomplish the task."
Under the private option, the state uses federal Medicaid funds to buy coverage for low-income adults on Arkansas' federally run health insurance exchange.
The state created the program in 2013 as a primary way of extending Medicaid coverage to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level: $16,105 for an individual, for instance, or $32,913 for a family of four.
According to the state Department of Human Services, the latest numbers available show that as of Jan. 31, 195,520 Arkansans were enrolled in the program.
In addition, 23,516 newly eligible adults had been added to the traditional Medicaid program because they were considered to have exceptional health needs, and 14,482 people had been approved for coverage but had not yet completed enrollment.
Hutchinson called for the creation of the task force nine days after taking office in January and called on the Legislature to continue funding for the private option through 2016. He signed legislation last month that will continue the funding through the end of the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Any replacement program developed by the task force would require legislative approval. It would take effect the same year that Arkansas is required to begin paying 5 percent of the cost of covering the newly eligible adults.
The state's share of the cost then will rise every year until it reaches 10 percent in 2020.
During Tuesday's meeting, Hendren unveiled a plan for generating the health overhaul report. The plan includes answering three questions: Where are the state's Medicaid and private options right now, where does the task force want them to be and what actions are necessary to get them there?
"Before we decide what we want to do, we have to decide where we are," Hendren said.
Task force co-chairman, state Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, also worked on the group's plan of action and said the group would stay busy while the consultant's report was being prepared.
"It's not like we are just going to wait for a report before we act," he said. "We'll be acting concurrently. The second piece that relates to that is as we define ... where we want to be -- my name for that is health care nirvana -- I'm not deluded into thinking that we'll be able to snap our fingers and create that in 15 months or 18 months or 24 months. That, too, may be a journey that evolves over time. I think this as a model is a great way to go."
The task force consists of eight senators, eight representatives and Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe, who is a nonvoting member.
The Legislature's 16 members include eight who have voted in previous sessions to authorize funding for the private option. Six members, all Republicans, opposed funding last year. Two members just took office in January.
Metro on 03/18/2015