Outreach workers are concerned about how continuing financial pressures are going to affect familiar programs and shape new ones, but they’re also still full of energy and ideas about how to reach the ever-growing number of people who need their help. The evolution of a national health care reform plan is also a subject of great interest and lots of feeling.
As proposals for national health care reform were taking over the front pages, HAN outreach workers were dealing with the impact of budget cuts to our Massachusetts program made necessary by the recession. Our traditional fall guest, Health Care For All Research Director Brian Rosman, gave both our Amherst and Boston meetings additional background on this issue along with a broader view of how health care reform in Massachusetts is faring in these challenging times.
Please also see our complete September HAN meeting notes. In this section of the agenda, HAN members discussed CommCare Bridge, MassHealth dental services, the end of Commonwealth Care auto-enrollment, and community resources.
Please also see our complete September HAN meeting notes. In this section of the agenda, HAN members discussed the transition to CommCare Bridge, MassHealth's email noticing, Medicare News, and community resources.
Since the legislature decided to end Commonwealth Care eligibility for some legal immigrants as of September 1, HAN members have been fielding lots of calls from concerned and confused immigrant clients.
Our special guest was Toby Guevin, State Policy Director for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition. We discussed the categories that determine immigrants’ eligibility for health benefits; gaps and barriers to coverage; and what policy changes the future could bring.
Our most recent Boston HAN meeting was all about Commonwealth Care. We talked with Melissa Boudreault and Niki Conte about gaps, plans, and premiums. We also talked about the state budget's impact—and a new report on CommCare networks.
The following is the second part of our May 28 Boston HAN meeting notes. It includes the Report on Network Standards in Commonwealth Care and Policy Updates from Health Care For All.
Outreach workers at this month’s HAN meeting in Amherst reported happily that it’s getting easier to communicate with the MassHealth Enrollment Center (MEC) and Central Processing Unit (CPU). Delays in the Medical Security Program (MSP), on the other hand, only appear to be getting worse. We were joined this month by Michael Norton and Niki Conte from the Commonwealth Connector Authority, who talked extensively with HAN members about problems and solutions within Commonwealth Care.
Both unemployed people and outreach workers continue to have difficulties interfacing with the Medical Security Program (MSP). Mostly, it is the time spent waiting for the application to be processed, and the anxiety this brings; a HAN member mentioned a client whose wife has been hospitalized while the application is pending. It is often impossible to get through to an MSP representative over the phone.
