States with federally facilitated health insurance exchanges won't receive Medicaid applications processed by the exchange until November, according to a Bloomberg report.
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, states have the option of expanding their Medicaid programs to cover adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Medicaid eligibility determinations and enrollment must be handled through the exchanges, according to the report.
Since the exchanges opened for enrollment earlier this month, states have experienced problems with Medicaid enrollment "across the board," Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, told Bloomberg. Shifting to enrollment through the exchanges has proved challenging for states transitioning from a paper-based method to an online one, according to the report.
Medicaid application processing isn't the only rough patch the new exchanges have encountered. Various glitches such as people not being able to create accounts on HealthCare.gov, dysfunctional drop down tools and the federal exchange site crashing due to high traffic have surfaced since the exchanges launched.
Republican leaders have questioned HHS and contractors helping with the healthcare reform law's implementation about the technical problems, which President Obama has classified as speed bumps any new product rollout is bound to encounter.
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