If you or any of your colleagues, friends, or family members are in support of improving the system for Medicaid eligibility determinations, you should call the Governor’s Office of new jersey’s Governor Murphy at 609.292.6000 and request that the Governor sign A4569/S499 into law. pass on this information to people you know who are interested in this issue.
According to BillTrack50, in its Bill Summary, This bill “requires the Commissioner of Human Services to develop an information technology platform for the intake, processing, and tracking of applications for benefits under the Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare programs.” Among other things, “The goals of the system will be: to simplify the applications and eligibility determination processes for both applicants and eligibility determination staff; to standardize application of eligibility policy across the various agencies responsible for eligibility determination; to allow for real-time tracking of the status of applications.”
At our Firm, we prepare and file Medicaid applications for the MLTSS long-term care Medicaid programs in nursing homes, assisted living and community care settings. It’s an incredibly complex process, since five years of transaction records are required, substantial evidence can be required for certain things, it can be challenging to explain transactions that occurred several years prior, and there seem to be many unwritten procedures and policies which vary a bit county by county. There are many legal pitfalls that can occur for an individual client that need particularized attention. Applications are regularly turned down due to insufficient evidence or failure to submit everything that is required. Applicants with alzheimers and other cognitive deterioration may not be able to recall or retrieve the necessary information.
Simplifying the application process would be great. This bill is a step ahead for monitoring and uniformity.
- Implementation of the bill would bring accountability and uniformity to the Medicaid application system, in-line with the Governor’s goal to create a Fairer NJ. You can’t drive improvement to this process, if you can’t monitor.
- Federal Government will pay 90% of IT development work and 75% for operations.
- Bill has unanimous support in both houses
- Bill is based on the report by the NJHCQI (Health Care Quality Institute), “Medicaid 2.0: Blueprint for the Future” with additional input/amendments/improvements by NJ NAELA (the New Jersey chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys)
- If you have personal or professional experience which reinforces the need for the implementation of this bill, you should feel free to share it with the Governor’s office.
Call us for legal advice on how to achieve Medicaid eligibility for someone who needs long-term care ……….. 732-382-6070