Hutchinson also defended the current 10-day limit that DHS gives people to respond to a request for income verification, which some have said may be too short.
So far, DHS has completed the verification process for about 330,000 of 600,000 people and has terminated coverage for 35,668 people, 31,501 of them participants in the private option, which since January 2014 has used federal Medicaid money to subsidize private health insurance for people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, about 13,000 more people are scheduled to lose coverage at the end of this month.
When DHS’ new automated verification system identifies a person as no longer eligible for coverage because of a change in income level, DHS sends the person a notice stating that he or she must show proof of income within 10 days or face termination. In about 97 percent of terminations, DHS says it did not receive a response to a notice before the deadline.
In a news conference Tuesday at the state Capitol, Hutchinson said he believes “the 10-day requirement for notice is working very well,” but he said DHS is struggling with an “information overload.”
