As Arkansas begins readying a work force of 537 people to provide one-on-one customer service for residents who will enroll for insurance under the federal health-care law, many details about the jobs are still in flux, those familiar with the process say.
Although people will be able to choose health plans on their own through a website, the Arkansas Insurance Department is contracting with about 25 government agencies, nonprofit groups and businesses to train and hire “in-person assisters” at “Health Connector” locations across the state.
The Insurance Department is also calling them guides, said spokesman Alice Jones, and a major contractor for project, the Arkansas Department of Health, has used the term “benefits technicians.”
Open enrollment for plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 begins Oct. 1 and will have a longer enrollment period in its inaugural year, lasting through March 31, Jones said Tuesday.
“Things are going so fast,” she said.
Some of the previously unanswered questions surrounding the guides - such as pay, length of expected employment, and amount of training required - likely have to do with the fact that agencies who contract with the Insurance Department have some discretion in how the workers are used, she said.
“It is my understanding that after open enrollment ends, what the guides do depends on the particular organization for whom they work,” Jones said.
Residents who qualify for Medicaid or those dealing with a major life change, such as the death of a spouse, will still be eligible after open enrollment ends March 31, she said.
“There will be a need for follow-up, as well. So there is still work to be done assisting a large number of consumers after the March 31 close of open enrollment,” she said.
After successfully completing a training period that state and federal officials estimate will last about three weeks, an employee will receive licensure good for one year.
The contracting agencies can differ in how much they pay the guides. The average range is about $10 to $14 an hour, “And you might have a supervisor who might be making more,” Jones said.
As of June 26, the state Health Department planned to employ 247 full-time-equivalent positions, 222 of them guides and 25 supervisors, spokesman Ed Barham said Tuesday.
“They looked at the population and the number of uninsured in each county to help make the decision about how many positions to have for each county,” he said.
The Health Department’s 19-county northwest region plans to hire the most - 67 guides and seven supervisors, for 74 positions total.
Central Arkansas is second with 58 total, six of those being supervisors. The northeast region is third, with 52 total, five of them supervisors.
The southwest region will have 35 with four of them supervisors, and the state’s southeast corner will have 28 positions and three supervisors.
“I’ve heard 25-30 hours a week,” Barham said. “I think there are some details that aren’t worked out yet.”
The guide position has some basic requirements, such as being at least 18 years old, having a high school diploma or GED, passing a criminal background check and living in the community where they would be working, Jones said. She added that the definition of “community” wasn’t immediately clear but likely would be defined by the employing agency’s service area.
Beyond that, the hiring agencies will likely have their own requirements, such as whether the applicant can grasp policy issues in a short amount of time and communicate them, deal with a diverse population and perform the duties in an unbiased manner, Jones said.
“I think they’re really looking for a people person - someone who gets along with people,” she said.
The guides’ training has been left primarily to the state’s 22 two-year colleges.
Of the 22 schools, North Arkansas College in Harrison is one of seven lead colleges tasked with training those who will later train the guides, said Nell Bonds, the college’s dean for Outreach and Workforce Development.
Her training area is roughly the top half of the Health Department’s 19-county northwest service region: Benton, Washington, Madison, Newton, Searcy, Carroll and Boone counties.
Originally, the college was tasked with training 98 guides, which includes not only the Health Department’s workers, but also other agencies’ guides.
“That may change depending on how the program evolves and develops,” she said. The two-year colleges devised the curriculum’s Phase I, which lasts a week. The federal government created the Phase II curriculum, which is an online course, and the local groups are in the process of creating Phase III.
“The curriculum development was on a very, very-fast-paced timeline,” said Tom Angel, Bonds’ project coordinator for training the two-year colleges’ guide instructors.
The first phase is basic customer service and “Health-care 101,” Jones said. Trainees will learn to use the laptops they’ll be assigned to help consumers navigate the health plan’s website and how to protect the consumers’ confidential health and financial information.
“The role of the guide is to help acquaint the consumer with his or her options,” Jones said. “The guide will not be making a choice of plans for a consumer.”
At a meeting last week of the Benton County Community Coalition health-improvement group, its leader, Loy Bailey, told the group the local health unit was setting up 15 work stations for guides in the Center for Nonprofits in Rogers and would station another at its local health unit in Siloam Springs.
Jones said some of the guides in her area began training June 24 at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville.
“Agencies or organizations have the ability to hire as soon as contracts are signed. So, some are a little ahead of others,” Jones said, adding she believed the Health Department will begin advertising for positions in early July.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 07/03/2013