New year makes Medicaid case moot, U.S. says

Folks can re-up, filing says

The start of a new calendar year makes moot the argument that Arkansas Works' work requirement detrimentally affected enrollees who lost medical coverage last year because those people could re-enroll as of Jan. 1, the U.S. Justice Department contends in a court filing this week seeking to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the rule.

To stay in compliance with the work requirement, enrollees who don't qualify for an exemption must spend 80 hours a month on work or other approved activities and report those hours using a state website or over the phone.

Those who fail to meet the requirement for three months during a year are removed from the program and barred from re-enrolling for the rest of the year.

More than 18,000 enrollees lost coverage after failing to comply for three months during the first six months of the work requirement's implementation, from June through December of last year.

Justice Department attorneys said in Tuesday's filing that "the new calendar year moots those figures" because those who lost coverage can now re-enroll. They argued that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of Washington, D.C., should dismiss the lawsuit filed by three advocacy groups that challenges the legality of the work requirement.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services reported last week that 1,452 enrollees who lost coverage for failing to comply last year had re-enrolled after Jan. 1 in Arkansas Works or other Medicaid coverage.

The Justice Department attorneys also argued that the option to report over the phone, added in December, negates arguments by the plaintiffs that requiring enrollees to report over a state website contributed to coverage losses and violated the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The plaintiffs have argued that the law requires enrollees to be able to submit information online, in person, by mail or over the phone.

Enrollees can submit information in person by using a computer at a Human Services Department office, state officials have said. Officials have not announced an option for enrollees to submit information on their compliance by mail.

Arkansas Works covers people who became eligible for Medicaid when the state extended coverage in 2014 to adults with household incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level.

More than 233,000 people were covered by the program as of Feb. 1.

The work requirement was phased in last year for enrollees ages 30-49 and is being added this year for those ages 19-29.

In January, 10,258 of the 105,158 enrollees subject to the requirement failed to comply.

The lawsuit was filed in August by the National Health Law Program, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Jonesboro-based Legal Aid of Arkansas.

They argue that, in approving the requirement last year, President Donald Trump's violated the federal law governing Medicaid by failing to consider the effect it would have on the program's goal of providing health coverage to low-income people.

A hearing on the case, as well as a hearing on a similar suit challenging the approval of a work requirement for Kentucky's Medicaid program, is set for March 14.

Metro on 02/22/2019

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