Deadline near, 10,000 call to get insurance help

More than 10,000 phone calls poured into the Arkansas Department of Human Services’ Batesville call center for help on health-insurance enrollment Monday as the deadline for federal coverage that would start Jan. 1 nears.

Over the weekend, the Obama administration extended the deadline to sign up for coverage that would start Jan. 1 from Monday night until tonight at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time, or 10:59 p.m. in Arkansas. Even though Arkansans enrolling in the state private-option plans don’t have the same deadline, the federal end date has pushed many people to sign up now.

“We usually don’t get anywhere close to that many calls in a single day,” said Amy Webb, spokesman forthe Department of Human Services.

Joyce Hardy also fielded a lot of questions on health insurance Monday and in the past week.

Hardy is an “in-person assister” trained by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to help people sign up for health-insurance plans available through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act either through the state’s private-option plan or through the federal health-exchange website.

She and the seven other assisters posted at the Central Arkansas Library System’s Little Rock branches have seen an uptick in people in the past two weeks as the deadline to sign up for insurance coverage through the federal exchange neared, she said.

“There have been a lot of people coming in with just questions, and to start in September and October we were doing a lot of outreach,” Hardy said. “In the last two weeks though, I’d say we’ve each helped between one and five people sign up every day we’ve been here. It’s been closer to four or five recently.”

There is no deadline for residents who qualify for the income-based Arkansas private option to sign up for coverage.

The state’s expansion, authorized by the federal healthcare overhaul law and approved by the state Legislature this year, extended eligibility for Medicaid to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level - $15,860 for an individual or $32,500 for a family of four.

The change made about 250,000 additional people eligible for coverage. Residents accepted into the state private-option plans can get coverage starting on Jan. 1,and those who enroll in plans through the end of March can receive coverage retroactively to Jan. 1 if they were eligible for the plan during that time period.

Residents who enroll in the state option after March 31 can still receive up to three months of retroactive coverage, but that won’t stretch back to Jan. 1.

State officials said Monday that updated enrollment numbers were not available for either the state or federal programs.

Cynthia Crone, deputy insurance commissioner with the Arkansas Insurance Department, said the federal numbers are reported on a monthly basis and would likely be released in mid-January.

Webb said the Department of Human Services releases enrollment numbers for the state’s private option weekly, but because of the Christmas holiday the release for this week will be delayed.

As of the last available numbers from Dec. 14, more than 61,000 Arkansans had been approved and had signed up for private plans through the state. A total of 86,341 residents had filed applications for the private option at that time.

Webb said that over the past three weeks there has been a noticeable uptick in applications for Department of Human Services programs. The raw data showed that between Dec. 1 and Dec. 7, 3,293 applicants applied for services, compared with 5,304 applicants from Dec. 8 through Dec. 14 and 7,193 applicants between Dec. 15 and Saturday.

Webb said not all of those applicants were enrolling in the private options, but the department attributes a large number of those applications to insurance seekers.

“We won’t have those specific numbers probably until next week, but you can tell from week to week we’re seeing larger numbers and more sheer volume applying for Medicaid coverage,” she said.

If someone who qualifies for the state’s private option applies through the federal exchange, his information is sent back to the state for enrollment in the state private option plan, Webb said.

Department of Human Services officials are still waiting for that information, which will increase the state’s enrollment rate.

The Central Arkansas Library System and all state offices will be closed today, but both the state and federal websites will be open for enrollment and operators at the federal exchange will be available to help with phone enrollment as well.

Hardy and her fellow assisters will be available at Central Arkansas Library System branches again on Thursday and are staying through March to help with questions or with enrollment. Hardy said the experience so far has been rewarding. People have through March 31 to enroll in a health-insurance plan without facing a penalty under the Affordable Care Act.

“People come in and they tell you these stories. And you understand what a big difference having health insurance is going to be for them,” she said. “One woman came in and started crying when she was signed up. She told me about how her mom had breast cancer and hadn’t had insurance. She would have to go to the emergency room and [the daughter] just wondered what it would have been like if her mom had had insurance. Now she and her husband are going to both have insurance.”

Hardy said another woman showed up with a letter from the Department of Human Services that said she qualified for the state’s private plan.

“She came in and said, ‘This letter says I have SNAP benefits and I’m going to be eligible for health insurance with no premiums, and that just can’t be right,’” Hardy said. “I looked at the letter and told her it was right, and we signed her up then and there for the private option. She was so happy that she was crying, too.”

Thousands of Arkansans all over the state received similar letters.

The deadline tonight is important for residents who will lose coverage next Tuesday because their insurance plans are ending, officials said.

About 20,000 residents enrolled in limited health-benefit plans through the Medicaid-funded ARHealth-Networks were notified in September that their plans would end on Dec. 31. Of those residents, Webb said 11,625 were notified they could enroll on the basis of their income levels in the state private-option plans, and the remaining 8,234 were sent notices that they would need to enroll through the federal website to continue coverage after Dec. 31.

A state program that provides coverage to another 2,400 residents with costly-to-treat medical conditions that had prevented them from buying private insurance coverage will end Dec. 31. Webb said those recipients were also notified of their options to continue coverage on Jan.1.

Webb said that as of Monday there was no way to tell how many of those recipients had enrolled in the state or federal plans to continue their insurance coverage.

The state Insurance Department estimated that about 329 Arkansans would lose private insurance plans no longer offered on Jan. 1 because of the new health-care rules.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/24/2013

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