Starting this week, your clients who use the Health Safety Net should look for redetermination letters. Also, verification requests (VC-1s) for people you NEWLY enroll in MassHealth now go to the Central Processing Unit. ...I'm interested to hear how the redeterminations go for people who use the Health Safety Net.
This winter, about 100,000 households in the Commonwealth were protected from losing their heat, electricity and other utilities by the state utility shut-off protection laws, which prevents shut-off for households whose circumstances meet certain conditions. This protection ended on May 1, and people have begun getting shut-off notices. These notices are bad news, but CAN be used to request a MassHealth premium waiver or Commonwealth Care premium waiver.
I decided at the last minute to "live blog" the HCFA conference. I wanted to send some of the conference out to outreach and enrollment workers who are in their offices enrolling as I write. John McDonough & Nancy Turnbull, two of the smartest, savviest policy makers, graciously agreed to my blogging them. Here are my impressions.
Responding to outreach workers' concerns, we recently polled the Health Access Network to learn whether the reduced application timelines for the Health Safety Net are affecting people’s access. From what we've heard, the answer is likely yes.
Nikki Riel from the Women's Health Network in Franklin County sent me contact info for specific places at MassHealth (click the link for a printable PDF), including the Estate Recovery and Appeals units and various premium-paying programs.
I got an email today from Nicole at Ecu-Health Care in North Adams, in response to our news post yesterday.
One reason for last week's survey about the individual mandate is this: it used to be difficult to explain my job to friends. But health care reform, and specifically the individual mandate, has changed that. Now, when I tell people what I do, I end up handing out business cards. People are beginning to understand that they have to do something about health insurance, even if they don't know what or by when. So, what is being communicated about the individual mandate, and who is doing the talking?
Sixty-one individuals in 37 communities across the Commonwealth (click to see them on a map) took our survey. Respondents included people working in hospitals and community health centers, legislators and members of religious communities, community health workers, and staff at community-based organizations and anti-poverty agencies.
Half of what (we're) doing is anxiety reduction -- Margie Ware, Berkshire County
Last Friday I attended the meeting of our Western Mass Health Access Network -- a monthly gathering in Amherst of outreach workers from throughout the western region. The theme that emerged from our community updates discussion was that while the number of calls coming in with questions about health care reform has been steady, the tone of the calls has shifted from initial relief to anxiety and frustration.
Yesterday, Karen Baumbach of Ecu-Health Care asked what would work as "official" documentation about the individual mandate exemption, beyond next year's tax forms.
"How are folks dealing with clients who are not subject to the mandate by affordability standards but want concrete assurance that they will not be penalized. My understanding is that the waiver from the penalty will be built into the tax return but by then it is too late."
