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FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014
Nearly 15K Medicaid applicants
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Posted on Sep 29 2014
The number of Medicaid clients has climbed to nearly 15,000 individuals in fiscal year 2014.
According to CNMI Department of Public Health’s Medicaid Office administrator Helen Sablan, about 14,856 applicants and their dependents applied for Medicaid benefits covering the period from Oct. 1, 2013, to Sept. 24, 2014.
Of this number of applications, only a total of 5,589 were approved.
According to Sablan, majority of the applications submitted are for females over 20 years of age, while the second highest were female applicants below age 1.
Sablan stated that about 3,000 of the applicants are under 1 year old.
Earlier in February, it was reported that about 1,700 applications have been approved.
For fiscal year 2014, the Medicaid program has set the income threshold for a single person at no more than $1,082 per month. For a household of two, the income bracket is $1,623 per month.
For a household of three, the new income bracket is $1,743 per month, while a household of four has an income bracket of $1,863 per month.
Under the government’s 2014 eligibility list, the income threshold is for up to households of 20 members.
Under the Medicaid program, members are covered 100 percent for services like dental, eye checkup, medicines, and hospital confinement, unless members have other insurance companies.
“We still have pending applications that are not processed yet and so these numbers will change. So far, we still have expenditures and funding to be spent,” Sablan said.
Sablan said there is still no limit to the cost of the services a beneficiary may claim either at the hospital or a clinic for as long as it is medically necessary.
