Funds needed for home-based care, Hutchinson says

Reducing the number of developmentally disabled people on a waiting list for home-based services will have to move more slowly than originally hoped, as funding sources are identified, Gov. Asa Hutchinson told a Medicaid advisory group Wednesday.

About 3,000 people are on the list.

In March, Hutchinson said he hoped to hire managed-care companies to handle Medicaid benefits for the elderly and disabled and use savings generated by those companies to cut the waiting list in half within three years.

But the managed-care proposal drew opposition from some legislators and health care providers, and Hutchinson later agreed to take it off the agenda for a special session held in April.

"It is still on the table, a possibility down the road, depending on how the discussion and the debate goes," Hutchinson told members of the Governor's Advisory Council on Medicaid Reform during a meeting at the state Capitol on Wednesday.

In the meantime, he said, "I have a commitment to start reducing [the waiting list] within the budget constraints that we have. It will just be in smaller increments.

"That's still a challenge for us, but we are committed to looking for solutions there."

Separately, the state's Medicaid chief said officials are close to signing an agreement that would let the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace help small businesses offer Medicaid-supported insurance to employees.

Under the plan, Medicaid will pay up to 75 percent of the cost of employer-sponsored coverage for employees who qualify under a program the state hopes to implement as part of Arkansas Works.

Businesses with up to 50 employees will be able to sign up.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services has applied to the federal government for approval to implement the program and make other changes to the expanded Medicaid program that Hutchinson has said will encourage enrollees to stay employed and take responsibility for their health care.

After the advisory panel meeting, state Medicaid Director Dawn Stehle said the department hopes to receive approval for the changes by Oct. 1, when enrollment in the state's health insurance exchange for individual consumers will start for coverage taking effect next year.

The Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace operates an exchange for small businesses under the federal Small Business Health Options Program, but Stehle said businesses won't have to offer coverage through that exchange to qualify for the Medicaid subsidy.

Approved by the Legislature in 2013, the expansion of the state's Medicaid program extended eligibility to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level: $16,394 for an individual, for instance, or $33,534 for a family of four.

Most recipients are covered through private plans offered through the state's federally operated health insurance exchange for individual consumers under the so-called private option.

About 290,000 Arkansans were covered under the Medicaid expansion as of April 30.

Hutchinson formed the 40-member council, made up of representatives of health care industry and advocacy groups, last year to help the Health Reform Legislative Task Force develop recommendations on changes to the private option and other parts of the state's Medicaid program.

The task force, created during last year's legislative session, is set to issue its final report before that panel expires at the end of the year.

Metro on 08/11/2016

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