HHSC extends Medicaid coverage

Good.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is extending Medicaid coverage for about 34,000 children in the Houston-Beaumont areas because Hurricane Ike may have disrupted families' ability to get and return the forms to renew their coverage, the commission announced Monday.

The Health and Human Services Commission automatically will extend the children's coverage for 90 days in Southeast Texas, and will send out new packets to help the families complete the regular renewal process by April, the commission said in a news release.

The children's coverage would have ended Dec. 31 without the extensions.

Stephanie Goodman, a Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman, told The Enterprise last week that the commission discovered January enrollment for Medicaid coverage was unusually low in Southeast Texas.

The commission attempted to call nearly 600 families over the weekend, and received responses from more than 100 families, according to the news release.

One in four families said they did not receive a renewal form, according to the news release. Among those who received the renewal form, almost 80 percent said they returned the form - most by mail.

A full list of the affected counties is in the Chron story. I'm still not sure why someone didn't think about this before now, but that's a minor quibble at this point. The main thing is that the people who need this coverage will continue to get it. Kudos to HHSC for getting this done. Thanks to Vince for the catch. A press release from State Rep. Sylvester Turner is beneath the fold.

St. Representative Sylvester Turner announced today that the state has agreed to extend Medicaid to local children whose enrollment forms apparently went missing following Hurricane Ike.

Turner learned this week that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission was reporting that thousands of children would lose their Medicaid coverage at the end of December or January because they had not re-enrolled. Because so many children were in the area affected by the hurricane, Turner asked HHSC to extend their coverage.

Today, HHSC told Turner's office that children in the Houston and Beaumont regions will have their Medicaid coverage automatically extended three months beyond their current enrollment period since Hurricane Ike may have been the cause for their applications never being processed.

The number of children affected is 34,000 in the Houston and the Beaumont regions. The two regions include 28 counties.

"I am pleased that the Health and Human Services Commission has agreed to this extension," Turner said. "With all the problems facing many of our citizens in the Houston and Beaumont areas due to Hurricane Ike and the general economic downturn, this was certainly not the time for children to lose their health care. I applaud HHSC for taking quick action on this issue."

HHSC officials say the Medicaid applications were re-routed to different processing centers because some facilities were closed following Hurricane Ike. They do not know if the applications were delivered but they were not logged into the state system.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on December 22, 2008 to Hurricane Katrina