The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services held a public info session in Manchester Tuesday night to demystify the state’s new Expanded Medicaid plan.
About 15 people, mostly care providers, attended the Manchester session. Questions ranged from how one qualifies for the program and ‘are refugees included?’ (they are), to the application process itself.
For those 50,000 newly eligible individuals in the state, they can get Medicaid through the “New Hampshire Health Protection Program” in one of two ways. DHHS Assistant Commissioner Mary Ann Cooney explains.
“So if an individual has access to health insurance coverage, then you can enroll with your employer-based insurance and New Hampshire Health Protection Program will pay the cost for that insurance and any of the copays and deductibles that people have through that health insurance.”
That’s called the Health Insurance Premium Payment Program, or HIPP. For those who don’t qualify for HIPP or don’t already have insurance, there’s what DHHS is calling a Bridge Program.
Those eligible for the Bridge Program will be enrolled in one of the state’s Managed Care Organizations, or MCOs, then, by the beginning of 2016 they’ll transition to insurance companies available on the Healthcare Exchange.
The date for these programs to launch is a moving target but the department hopes it will start next month. The plan involving the Exchange carriers still requires federal approval.
The meeting was the second in what will be a dozensimilar sessions through July 1st.
