Board OK's 11 aides for coverage

Workers to help insurance signers

A state board on Wednesday approved a contract that will provide 11 outreach workers, known as navigators, to help people sign up for health insurance starting Oct. 1.

The contract calls for the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace to pay Jonesboro-based Enroll the Ridge $554,391 through Sept. 30 to supply the navigators, who will be paid $13.50 an hour, as well as a manager who will be paid $25 an hour.

Enroll the Ridge plans to employ two of the navigators. The others will be supplied under subcontracts with Wrightsville-based Future Builders, the Hispanic Women's Organization of Arkansas in Springdale, the Planting a Seed Foundation in Camden and the Tri County Rural Health Network in Helena-West Helena.

Under an earlier contract, Enroll the Ridge and Future Builders had provided 15 navigators for nine months, from last Oct. 1 through June 30, at a cost of $552,000.

In preparation for the open enrollment period that runs from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, the marketplace has also allocated $1.25 million toward a marketing campaign that will likely include radio and television commercials and the use of social media outlets.

"It is urgent that we get the message out and sign as many people up during that open enrollment period as possible," marketplace spokesman Alicia McCoy said during the meeting Wednesday.

About 340,000 Arkansans are signed up for plans offered through the exchange. That includes about 284,000 whose premiums are paid by federal and state Medicaid funds under the Arkansas Works program and 56,000 in non-Medicaid plans.

While people who qualify for Medicaid can enroll at any time, sign-ups for others are limited to annual open enrollment periods.

The California-based Kaiser Family Foundation estimated last year that about 47,000 of the 249,000 Arkansans who lacked insurance at that time were eligible for tax credits provided under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to help low-income people buy private coverage through the exchange.

Starting Jan. 1, state officials also hope to begin moving about 60,000 people off the state's Medicaid expansion program by limiting eligibility to people with incomes at or below the poverty level, instead of 138 percent of the poverty level.

Many of those who lose Medicaid coverage are expected to qualify for the tax credits provided under the Affordable Care Act.

The board's approval of the Enroll the Ridge contract followed a recommendation earlier this month by the board's consumer assistance committee.

The nonprofit was the only bidder that responded to a July 17 solicitation by the marketplace for proposals to provide navigators.

McCoy said the contract will provide flexibility to increase or decrease the number of navigators as needed.

Created by the Legislature in 2013, the marketplace certifies the plans sold on the state's exchanges and helps people enroll.

Money for the marketplace's operations comes from a fee, equal to 3 percent of the premiums for non-Medicaid plans sold on the exchange, that the marketplace collects from insurers.

The marketplace used federal grant money in 2015 to set up a state-run exchange for small businesses. But enrollment in that exchange, which allows some businesses to qualify for tax credits to offset the cost of coverage, will end next year.

That's because Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the only company that has offered those plans through the exchange, does not plan to participate next year.

According to the exchange website, myarinsurance.com, online sign-ups for the plans will end Aug. 31.

After that, businesses can use paper forms to enroll through Nov. 15, the deadline to sign up for coverage effective Dec. 1.

The plans, which the marketplace says cover about 480 employees from 75 businesses, will terminate on their annual renewal dates in 2018, Blue Cross spokesman Max Greenwood has said.

Ending enrollment will reduce the amount the marketplace had expected to pay Reston, Va.-based hCentive, which set up the small business enrollment web portal, by about $800,000, McCoy said.

A 2015 contract had called for the marketplace to pay the company $7.2 million to set up the website and operate it through Feb. 28, 2018.

Metro on 08/24/2017

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