Santa Fe New Mexican - In a few years, low-income New Mexicans applying for Medicaid could do so online and learn at the same time if they also qualify for food stamps, emergency food assistance or child support. Finding out if you're eligible for Medicaid, the government's low-income health insurance program, or other government aid isn't that easy right now. Currently, a person can apply for Medicaid at offices around the state or can print out online applications, fill them out and then mail them in or hand-deliver them, said Matt Kennicott, a spokesman for the New Mexico Human Services Department. But times are a-changin'.
New Mexico is in the middle of a systemic overhaul of the technology running the state's health care system as it and other states prepare for the rollout of the nation's health care law in 2014. Decisions being made now will alter how people apply for certain government programs and how the state processes billions of dollars in Medicaid expenses every year. Medicaid covers more than 550,000 New Mexicans, or one-quarter of the state's population. In September, the state approved a a $75 million contract with Deloitte Consulting LLP to develop a new Medicaid eligibility process to replace a state computer system that has operated since the mid-1980s on technologies developed in the 1970s, according to state documents. The new system will roll "all our programs into one eligibility system," Kennicott said. At the same time the design of the new eligibility system has started, New Mexico is negotiating with an unidentified firm on a years-long contract worth $100 million that will update how Medicaid expenses are processed and paid. In addition to that, New Mexico should learn in a week or two whether it has qualified for $34 million in federal grant money to help set up a centerpiece of the new federal health care law, a state exchange. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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