Friday’s Medicaid Council meeting focused on DSS and
AccessHealthCT’s plans to alert
17,688 working parents that their HUSKY benefits will end August 1st.
The cut was passed in last year’s state budget and 1,215 parents lost coverage
last year, but the large majority qualified for another year of HUSKY under
federal law. In good news, of the 1,215 cohort that lost coverage last year,
about half qualified to remain on HUSKY through a different eligibility
category. In bad news, only 7% are currently enrolled in insurance plans
through AccessHealthCT. The remainder are likely uninsured. In more bad news,
among the small number who initially enrolled in an AccessHealthCT plan, the
number who have cancelled their coverage has more than doubled from November to
May – likely because of the considerable expense to working families. In
addition to informing people about insurance options, Council members urged DSS
and AccessHealthCT to include information helpful to people who don’t qualify
to stay on HUSKY and can’t afford expensive insurance plans, even with
subsidies, so they can plan to preserve their health. Such information could
include getting preventive care appointments and getting refills for
maintenance medications before August 1st, as well as talking to
providers about continuing care, setting up payment plans for ongoing health
problems after coverage ends.
We also heard about encouraging progress
by DSS in reducing phone wait times. About half of callers needs are
accommodated through the interactive voice response system. The average caller
waits 9 minutes to speak with a live worker; down from 47 minutes in April
2015. Only 18% of callers who need to speak to a live worker are abandoning
their call. In response to a question, DSS cannot determine how many of those abandoned
callers call back later or how many eventually lose coverage in the program.
