By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Feb. 20
The Kansas Family Medical Clearinghouse is a long way from being caught up.
“It”s our best estimate that it will be nine months to a year before they can get through the current backlog,” said Andy Allison, deputy director of the
Kansas Health Policy Authority
.
The clearinghouse processes 85 percent of the applications
about 9,000 a month
for
HealthWave
, the state”s insurance program for children in low-income families.
Since last July, parents have had to prove their children are U.S. citizens and to confirm each child”s identity before the children could be eligible for HealthWave.
The requirements caused applicants to flood the clearinghouse with phone calls, faxes and letters.
Applications that once were processed in three to four weeks now take two to three months.
At a health policy authority meeting Tuesday, Allison said his prediction depended on the clearinghouse being able to hire much-needed staff after July 1, the start of the state”s next fiscal year.
“We”ve asked the Legislature for those additional resources,” he said.
Without the additional workers, he said, the system will remain bogged down.
Lawmakers are not expected to set the health policy authority”s Fiscal 2008 budget until April.
The backlog is troubling because parents whose children are uninsured are likely to end up in emergency rooms, increasing the state”s uncompensated-care costs.
The documentation requirements have blocked 18,000 to 20,000 children and pregnant women from being eligible for Medicaid.
After meeting with the state”s Congressional delegation last week in Washington, Allison said he detected little interest in relaxing the documentation requirements.
The new rules are intended to block illegal immigrants from gaining access to government-funded health care.
Allison said other states have avoided processing backlogs by hiring additional workers. Some, he said, have “done far less (than Kansas) to implement the law, quite honestly.”
Kansas, he said, was one of the first states to detect the requirement”s effect on Medicaid enrollment.
“I”m convinced that other states have not done the kinds of assessments we have
assessments to accurately portray how long it”s going to take, how many kids are going to be affected and what the real impact has been,” Allison said.
Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.