Ohio begins processing Medicaid cases from fed site

This week Ohio began receiving the first of more than 106,000 Medicaid applications that Ohioans had made through the federal healthcare.gov website (Source: “Ohio gets some Medicaid cases from federal website,” Associated Press via Chillicother Gazette, Feb. 26, 2014).

The Ohio Department of Medicaid announced that on Wednesday they began receiving the data from the federal government on applications that had been sitting in limbo, in some cases for months, because of a computer glitch with the federal site. One concern is that some of the applicants may have been informed that they are eligible for Medicaid when they are not.

Ohio officials released an outline of the state's plan to expedite processing the cases. The state is facing pressure to sort out its cases before the March 31 deadline for people to sign up for insurance or face federal tax penalties under the new federal health care law.

“It’s going to be close,” said Greg Moody, director of the Office of Health Transformation.  For those residents found ineligible for Medicaid, the state plans to alert them about seeking other coverage, he said.