DAILY LOBO new mexico
monday February 10, 2014
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
UNMH ferries newly uninsured to Medicaid UNM Care to serve those rejected by Medicaid by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno
Due to changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, the UNM Hospital has decided to extend the availability of the UNM Care Program for another year. At a UNMH Board of Directors meeting on Friday, UNMH CEO Steve McKernan said thousands of New Mexicans were affected by the Affordable Care Act. He said the hospital is extending the program to accommodate these changes. “We’re going to extend the UNM Care Program effectively in its current form until Dec. 31 (2014) for people who don’t qualify for Medicaid,” he said. “The pickup on exchanges is so low … We were told that there are at least 30,000 people in the state of New Mexico with non-qualifying insurance plans that lost their insurance on Dec. 31 (2013).” According to the UNMH website, UNM Care “is a health care assistance program that provides quality medical care to qualified Bernalillo County residents.” It can provide either primary or supplementary health insurance
for people who don’t qualify for Medicaid, based on a person’s deductible. Last year Gov. Susana Martinez announced a plan that would expand Medicaid coverage to about 170,000 adults in the state by 2020. As a result, about 80 percent of UNM Care recipients are expected to be absorbed through the expansion, McKernan said. He said that at the moment, there is “a gigantic influx of people who need to get to Medicaid” from UNM Care. But at the moment, only a small number of UNM Care recipients who became eligible for Medicaid at the beginning of this year due to the ACA have applied, McKernan said. He said it might be because of the hassle in doing so. “What we’re seeing is a lot of very nervous people,” he said. “They have to get an application to Medicaid, to file for Medicaid.” McKernan said UNMH hired additional employees to help eligible UNM Care recipients transfer to Medicaid. “We hired about 20 people who helped with eligibility,” he said. “We are backed up a bit on that, but we’re processing people through and working to get those eligible for the Medicaid system … We’re working very closely with our population for Medicaid.” But because a state worker has to approve applicants’ paperwork
before they officially receive Medicaid, the entire transfer process of UNM Care recipients might take up to three months, McKernan said. Recipients can still benefit from the program during this period, he said.
McKernan said UNM Care recipients and applicants should provide a formal proof of Medicaid denial to qualify for the program for the rest of the year. “You have to apply for Medicaid
by Chloe Henson
news@dailylobo.com @ChloeHenson5
Sergio Jiménez / @SXfoto / Daily Lobo UNM football’s head coach Bob Davie watches the field during the Nov. 16 game against Colorado State. UNM received 27 National Letters of Intent last week. Full story on the Back Page
volume 118
issue 93
Care PAGE 3
GPSA: unblocking tuition was unwise Certain students were blindsided by new fees
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Ardee Napolitano / Daily Lobo Suzanne Quillen, chair of the UNM Hospital Board of Directors, listens to a presentation about the UNM Care Program at a board meeting in Domenici Hall on Friday. UNMH has decided to extend the availability of the program until Dec. 31 to accommodate changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act at the beginning of 2014.
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and get a denial to be eligible for UNM Care,” he said. “If they get denied for Medicaid, we line them up to be eligible for UNM Care, but we won’t actually process them,
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The graduate student government made a case for re-blocking tuition on Thursday. At a UNM Board of Regents’ Academic Student Affairs and Research Committee meeting, Matthew Rush, chief of staff of the Graduate and Professional Student Association, presented a recommendation to provide fixed tuition rates for students taking 12 credit hours or more. Rush said students enrolled in graduate programs that charge differential tuition experienced a much larger increase in tuition last semester than students who paid non-differential tuition. “We have found that, programwise, there is a huge effect,” he said. “(Students enrolled in differential programs) tend to actually take larger (amounts of ) credit hours.” Differential tuition is an additional tuition that must be requested by programs or colleges to the provost and then approved by the Board of Regents, according to the UNM Bursar’s website. Students in programs
with non-differential tuition are not charged that extra tuition. While the number of students paying differential tuition is smaller than the number of students who are in non-differential programs, Rush said the current tuition model is putting a large burden on those students. He said there were about 5,000 students on the non-differential tuition model and 1,000 students who paid differential tuition. Blocking tuition will also decrease the amount of revenue collected by the University, Rush said. “I want to be very transparent,” he said. “The reality is, if we put this forward, that’s going to reduce the income by $400,000 for students from this semester alone.” Rush presented several reasons why students feel the administration and the regents should consider a 12 credit hour block. One of the reasons was that many people involved in unblocking tuition did not fully understand what the effects would be, he said. The Board of Regents approved unblocking tuition during the 2013 spring semester. “The implications of unblocking, I don’t think, were fully realized,” he said. “We’re trying to correct that right now. Not only the regents — the administration, the students
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