The backlog of Medicaid applications and other paperwork has been reduced by more than two-thirds since late last month, Department of Human Services Director Cindy Gillespie said Wednesday.
In a letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Gillespie said the department had 8,912 overdue applications or other paperwork as of Monday, down from 27,882 as of Nov. 27 and about 100,000 cases in June.
She said the department is making "steady progress" to meeting its goal of eliminating the backlog by the end of the year.
Mary Franklin, director of the department's Division of County Operations, briefed the Health Reform Legislative Task Force on the department's progress.
"We will continue working at this until we get all of those cases taken care of," Franklin told task force members Wednesday, adding that she is "very excited to be at this point."
"It's been a long journey," she said.
The backlog resulted from the initial poor functioning of the department's new Medicaid enrollment system, which was needed to determine eligibility for several types of Medicaid benefits under new rules that took effect in 2014.
To process the overdue cases, the department has allocated about $8.4 million, including $7.5 million that it is paying Reston, Va.-based Maximus through the end of this year to provide a surge of 250 temporary caseworkers, who began processing paperwork in September.
The backlog as of Monday included 2,236 applications that had been pending for more than 45 days, as well 4,851 requests for changes in coverage that had been pending for more than 20 days.
Gillespie said in the letter that the department has also begun working with the state Department of Correction to ensure inmates are removed from the Medicaid program.
The human services agency also plans to notify Medicaid recipients of planned changes to the expanded portion of the state's Medicaid program, which will be known as Arkansas Works starting Jan. 1, as "an opportunity to validate the residence of all Arkansas Works recipients," Gillespie said.
"Returned notices will be reviewed, and coverage will be terminated in cases where the recipient has not provided an accurate address," Gillespie said in the letter.
Metro on 12/15/2016