Hutchinson: Medicaid cancellations will resume

Hutchinson again rejected calls from the state Democratic Party, as well as from at least one Republican sponsor of the law creating the private option, to give Medicaid recipients more than 10 days to respond to the department’s records requests.

Tuesday marks the end of the two-week suspension Hutchinson imposed on termination notices that have been going to thousands on Medicaid.

Hutchinson said 300 DHS staffers have worked more than 2,200 hours of overtime since last week to work on the responses.

The governor also said DHS will begin allowing extra time for processing before issuing termination notices and said two insurance companies that provide coverage for most participants in the private option have agreed to extend pharmacy benefits for 30 days to people whose coverage is terminated.

Recipients whose incomes appear to have changed are sent a letter saying they must verify their incomes within 10 days. “Specifically in appropriate circumstances, the termination letters”, Hutchinson said.

No matter how much time is given, it’s inevitable that some people won’t realize their coverage has been canceled until they visit a doctor or try to fill a prescription, he said.

DHS is seeking to verify the eligibility of about 600,000 Arkansans. The 10 day income verification window was not paused while the Medicaid termination notice process was on hold.

Most of those who have received cancellation notices are among 350,000 Medicaid recipients, including private-option enrollees, who signed up through the new system.

The Human Services Department has traditionally given recipients 10 days to respond to requests for such information, he said.

“If you put a 30-day window in place, and somebody is ineligible, and then it goes to 90 days beyond that for the appeal process, ultimately when you’re talking about tens of thousands of people, you’re talking about millions and millions of dollars”, he said. He also lifted a hiring freeze so the Department of Human Services could hire additional workers, and authorized overtime pay to help with processing.

Arkansas is expected to end a two week pause to sending out Medicaid termination notices on Tuesday. Staff has been added and reassigned, while the envelope sent to beneficiaries now includes a DHS logo with the words, “Important information about your benefits!” written in red ink in all caps. “We know that mail is getting processed”.