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1994.09.23 : Medicaid Application Sites

Contact:  Anne Verano     (202) 690-6145
Friday, Sept. 23, 1994


            LOCAL MEDICAID APPLICATION SITES ESTABLISHED

     Reaching out to bring health care coverage to more low-income
women and children, states are establishing Medicaid application
sites in hundreds of local clinics and hospitals serving poor and
moderate-income areas.

     As many as 3,000 sites may be used for the outreach program,
which makes the application process more accessible to poor families
in health care facilities serving their neighborhoods, said HHS
Secretary Donna E. Shalala.

     "The convenience of the process permits Medicaid eligibility to
be established more quickly and medical services to be available
sooner to families that need the help," she said.

     The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 requires that
states arrange to take Medicaid applications in federally qualified
health centers and in "disproportionate share hospitals," which
serve large numbers of poor women and children.

     The states are implementing the law under guidelines provided
by the Health Care Financing Administration, which provides federal
matching funds to state Medicaid programs.

     HCFA Administrator Bruce C. Vladeck said that eligibility
workers at the new application sites "are making big government 
work on a person-to-person level by helping people complete 
applications, answering their questions or obtaining answers from
the state Medicaid agency."

     Because Medicaid eligibility has usually been associated with
welfare programs, of which Aid to Families with Dependent Children
is the largest, the states customarily receive and process Medicaid
applications in their welfare offices.

     However, Congress in recent years has enacted legislation
extending Medicaid eligibility to pregnant women and children in
poor families with incomes higher than the levels that would qualify
them for welfare.

     The new application sites are being established to serve these
people and preclude the need for them to travel to state welfare
offices to apply for Medicaid.

     States are required to make Medicaid available to pregnant
women and children up to age 6 whose family income does not exceed
133 percent of the federal poverty line.  Also Medicaid coverage is
required for children born after Sept. 30, 1983, and up to age 19 in
families with incomes at or below the poverty line.

     The federal government will provide matching funds to pay for
half of the estimated $80 million annual cost of operating the
application sites.  

     An interim final regulation on the outreach program is
published in today's Federal Register. Comments may be submitted
within 60 days to the Health Care Financing Administration,
Attn: MB-52-IFC, P.O. Box 26676, Baltimore, Md. 21207.

                                 ###

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Health Care Financing Administration, which
directs the Medicare and Medicaid programs, helps pay the medical
bills of 67 million Americans. HCFA's fiscal year 1994 budget
amounts to nearly $250 billion.