Social Services seeks to hire 24 new positions to assist with Medicaid expansion cases
In June, Governor
"The state allocated approximately
Rogers explained that the state used a formula derived from the 2015 statewide JLARC study -- which assessed the number of caseloads each department handles -- to determine how much funding localities would receive.
The study found
"We have about 1,100 cases, and the statewide average is about 600, so that's almost twice the size of the statewide average as far as caseloads," said Rogers. "We did receive the second highest allocation in the state, second to
"So this allocation addresses the deficits that were identified there as well as provides money to assist us with the additional staff that will be needed to implement medicaid expansion," she added.
The state is projecting that about 400,000 residents will be impacted by Medicaid expansion, and of that number,
"And what we know from the Affordable Care Act, when
With such an increase of caseloads expected from the expansion, Rogers is seeking to hire over 20 new positions within the
"What I am requesting from the Board today is to allocate a portion of that [funding] -- a little over half-a-million dollars -- to give us the resources that we need, [which is] about nine positions to help us address our caseloads right now today before Medicaid even expands.
"This will get us at a more competitive caseload for our workers before we add Medicaid expansion," she added. "So it's really a strategy to help position us to best absorb Medicaid expansion."
During their Wednesday night meeting, the Board approved the nine positions, which Rogers plans to begin recruiting immediately so the new hires will have the opportunity to work in tandem with the state's training.
"The state is implementing new training for benefit program specialists regarding Medicaid expansion, and [it will cover] all the policy changes that will take place as well as the new technology," she said. "There will be additional screens and fields that they will need to complete for Medicaid expansion so we want to have our staff on board so they can take advantage of that additional training from the state."
In addition to the nine positions added in August, Rogers plans to readdress to the Board in September to ask for 15 more.
"In September, I will be coming to the Board requesting an additional 15 positions, again to implement what we believe to be a really comprehensive and collaborative response for the county in regards to Medicaid expansion," she said. "I want to stress the importance of why I believe that requesting these additional positions up front to address existing workload issues that we have right now."
If the positions are approved by the Board in September, Rogers plans to follow the same process that she will use in August. If she struggles filling those positions, she will be able to conveniently pull from the August application pool. Her ultimate goal is to have all 24 positions filled by December so the department is trained and prepared to handle the expansion at its onset.
"Open enrollment for Medicaid starts in October, so that's another factor that influenced the need for us to go in August now to ask for additional resources," Rogers said. "Although Medicaid expansion becomes effective in January, October is likely when we're going to start seeing the increase in applications because of the kickoff will happen from a state perspective in September. And a lot of communication has been going out about the availability of Medicaid for an expanded population of people."
Rogers went on to explain that her preparation efforts are in part a result of the department's recent improvement in handling Medicaid casework, and she doesn't want to see that success decline.
She noted that at one point in time,
"As I sit here today, we have completely eliminated our overdue Medicaids. We celebrated in August of last year, removing almost 9,000 cases from our overdue. We are now processing Medicaid renewals at almost 100 percent timeliness with the state standard at 97 percent," said Rogers. "So we have overcome a lot, including turnover, which in FY16 was at 24.7 percent and for FY18 we celebrate turnover being at 13 percent.
"So the department has made a tremendous amount of progress -- a huge part of that has been the support the board has given us over the past few years to address salaries and allow us to be competitive," she added.
When Northam signed the budget into law,
"The biggest change for Medicaid is that a whole new category of folks will become eligible, and that's going to be the adults without children," said Rogers. "Currently, that population is not covered by Medicaid unless you have a disability or you have kids you're caring for as dependents. So that's going to be the new category where if you're making less than a little over
In addition to adults without children, another group of residents that will be impacted by the expansion is working families.
"With other categories, [such as] working families, the income threshold has increased," Rogers said. "It's a population that will remain eligible, but now you can earn more money and be eligible for Medicaid, and that's a response to expansion."
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