Medi-Cal Applicants in Half Moon Bay to Receive Faster Determination on Eligibility

By Bay City News Service:

Medi-Cal applicants will now be granted temporary benefits if the Department of Healthcare Services cannot determine their eligibility within 45 days, following a ruling by the Alameda County Superior Court on Tuesday.

Advocates with Bay Area Legal Aid said Thursday that the ruling will help low-income Californians who might have otherwise gotten stuck in a kind of limbo while the state worked through a backlog of 900,000 applicants. At least one of those applicants reportedly died during the wait.

Plaintiff Frances Rivera’s son, Robert Cribbs Jr., reportedly died of a pulmonary embolism while waiting for a determination on his Medi-Cal application. Two months after Cribbs’ death, Rivera received a letter stating that her son had qualified for Medi-Cal, according to Bay Area Legal Aid.

The State Department of Healthcare Services said Thursday that they’ve reduced their Medi-Cal backlog by more than 95 percent, but there are obstacles in processing some of the remaining applications.

Some are from individuals who have not yet provided documents or other information needed to determine their eligibility. There are also duplicate applications that will have to be removed from the system, officials said.

There are roughly 12 million people enrolled in Medi-Cal, and 2.7 million of them have been enrolled since Jan. 1, 2014, due the program’s expansion under the Affordable Care Act, officials said.

Rivera vs. Douglas, the case that led to this week’s ruling, accused the state of leaving hundreds of thousands of California residents without healthcare.

It was filed by a coalition of legal organizations including Bay Area Legal Aid, Central California Legal Services, Multiforum Advocacy Solutions, National Health Law Program, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County and Western Center on Law & Poverty.

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