With Chapter 58 and health care reform, Massachusetts’ leaders proclaimed that the state was committed to most of its residents getting health coverage. It is a hard thing to achieve, even harder to sustain. In government, there is often a big push for the "flavor of the day," but then attention turns and initiatives fade away. This is one of the risks we face with health coverage in Massachusetts.
Making sure people who apply for Commonwealth Care are able to get and keep their coverage was on the minds of outreach workers at the Western Massachusetts HAN meeting in April, which featured a presentation by the Director of Commonwealth Care, Melissa Boudreault.
In response to our post about our poll on the shortened window for Health Safety Net (HSN) applications, several people wrote that increasingly their clients need to submit hardship waivers and/or face bills for uncompensated medical services, even though they are likely HSN eligible.
Outreach workers do the hard work of explaining policy changes to real people, so often they are among the first to hear feedback about how they are working. Not surprisingly, this was a theme of the Western Mass. Health Access Network meeting this February, when we gathered with outreach and enrollment workers from Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties. HAN members doing enrollment agreed that there is still confusion and frustration in their communities.
December was intense... this is the 'take-away' from our Health Access Network meetings in Amherst and Boston this month. Across the board, people providing enrollment assistance in hospitals, community health centers and community organizations were faced with a huge number of people trying to get health insurance coverage before the Dec. 31 deadline. John Bergeron from Hilltowns Community Health Center got the prize for the latest request for assistance; he received several phone messages on the evening of December 31 from people looking to comply with the mandate.
Several outreach workers have contacted me since the state released the RFR for "MassHealth, Commonwealth Care and Commonwealth Choice Enrollment Outreach Grants" at the end of August. They are trying to understand how the inclusion of Commonwealth Choice in the scope of work will change things.
