About 13,000 people were approved by the federal government for coverage under Arkansas’ expanded Medicaid program as of Dec. 20,bringing the total number of applicants found eligible to more than 88,000, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services said Friday.

Those approved by the federal government for Medicaid coverage in Arkansas applied through a federal website, healthcare.gov, by calling a federal call center or by mailing an application to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Amy Webb, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

Although enrollment started Oct. 1, the Human Services Department didn’t receive the first batch of information on applications from the federal agency until Dec. 20, Webb said.

That data included information on applications submitted as of Dec. 5.

Days later, the department received more data, containing information on applications submitted as of Dec. 20, Webb said.

Since it received the information, Webb said, the state agency has been working to weed out duplicate records and correct other problems.

As of Friday, the department had reviewed 9,295 applications approved for Medicaid coverage by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The department began mailing out notices to those people Friday and expected to have all the notices mailed by the end of Monday, Webb said.

She said the department’s staff was still reviewing the applications of about 4,000 others who were found eligible by the federal agency.

“They’ll process them as quickly as possible,” Webb said.

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

The change made an estimated 250,000 Arkansans eligible for coverage that started Wednesday. Under Arkansas’ so-called private option, most recipients can sign up for a private plans on the state’s health-insurance exchange and have the premiums paid by Medicaid.

About 10 percent - those whose health needs are considered exceptional - are expected to be covered under the traditional Medicaid fee-for-service program.

In addition to those who have been approved for coverage by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a state Human Services Department spokesman said earlier this week that the state had approved 75,275 applicants for coverage as of Dec. 28.

That included about 63,000 recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, who responded to letters sent by the state in September notifying them that they were eligible for Medicaid coverage.

Others have applied through a state website, access.arkansas.gov, by calling the state Human Services Department or by submitting a paper application to the department.

The notices being mailed out Friday include an identification number that recipients can use at a doctor’s office or hospital as proof of their Medicaid eligibility.

The notices also direct the applicants to visit another state website, insureark.org, where they can complete a questionnaire designed to identify those who have exceptional health needs.

Applicants whose answers indicate they have such needs are enrolled in the traditional Medicaid program. Those found to not have exceptional health needs can use the website to choose a plan on the state’s health-insurance exchange.

Those who fail to visit insureark.org and complete enrollment within 12 days of being found eligible for coverage are automatically assigned to a private plan on the exchange.

As of Dec. 28, 69,485 applicants had completed enrollment, including 63,173who were enrolled in private health plans and 6,312 who were assigned to the traditional program.

“We have continued to see the numbers grow,” Webb said. “I think there is a strong indication that there were a lot of Arkansans out there who needed healthcare coverage and were going without it.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/04/2014