Health Beat: Private Option Enrollees Grow

Editor’s note: Each Wednesday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Health Beat,” a round-up of health-related topics in our email newsletter, which you can sign up to receive daily for free here. 

PRIVATE OPTION NUMBERS CONTINUE TO RISE
Arkansas’ Private Option Medicaid program continues to see growing numbers, according to state figures. As of November 30, 2014, the number of eligible participants in the Health Care Independence Program climbed to 223,456, while another 213,200 completed enrollment. At the end of October, the numbers stood at 218,844 approved for eligibility and 212,334 who completed enrollment.

Pulaski County dominates enrollment figures with 30,171 in the program. Washington County is second with 11,333 and Benton County is third at 9,961. Garland County and Sebastian County are fourth and fifth with 8,792 and 8,181 enrollees respectively.

SEMINAR PLANNED
The Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care will present the 2014 Arkansas Medicaid Educational Conference to update the state’s health care providers on a variety of topics related to the state’s Medicaid system. The conference topics include Patient Centered Medical Home Care and the Arkansas Payment Improvement Initiative.

The event will be held on Thursday, Dec. 11 at the Embassy Suites in Little Rock from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Arkansas’ Medicaid Director Dawn Stehle and Dr. William Golden, Arkansas Medicaid Medical Director, will be featured speakers.

ARKANSAS HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION TOUTING HEALTH TERM KNOWLEDGE
With open enrollment periods for health insurance on many people’s radars, the Arkansas Hospital Association is touting the findings of one health care economist who studied the confusion that surrounds shopping for health insurance.

“Last year, George Loewenstein, a health care economist at Carnegie Mellon University surveyed 202 people who had employer-sponsored health insurance. He found that only 14 percent could identify – from a multiple choice quiz – terms such as copay, coinsurance, deductible and maximum out-of-pocket expense,” said Bo Ryall, president of the Arkansas Hospital Association.

Ryall also pointed to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey of more than 4,000 assister programs that helped an estimated 10.6 million people during last year’s open enrollment period.

In the survey, they found that almost three-quarters of the programs said most consumers who sought help struggled to understand even basic health insurance terms.

“In Arkansas, we’re hoping to change some of that so people won’t let fear keep them from getting the health insurance that they need,” Ryall said.

What are some of the terms that cause the most confusion and what do experts recommend you should know? Co-pay, co-insurance, deductible, out-of-pocket cost, out-of-pocket maximum, and premium.

ARKANSAS RESEARCH ALLIANCE HAS A HEALTH BENT
Earlier this month, the Arkansas Research Alliance launched a new program to recognize and reward research talent in the state with a program called ARA Fellows. Three of the five Fellows have a distinctive health bent to their research. They include:

Laura James, M.D., UAMS. She is the Director, Translational Research Institute; Professor, Department of Pediatrics; and Section Chief, Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, Arkansas Children’s Hospital. James is researching the performance of drug dosing in children in order to gather critically needed information to guide the dosing of a number of pediatric therapeutics.

Argelia Lorence, Ph.D., ASU. Lorence co-leads the Plant Imaging Consortium (PIC) and leads research for the potential development of crop plants with enhanced nutritional content, better growth, and improved tolerance to multiple environmental stresses.

Trace Peterson, Ph.D., D.V.M., UAPB. Peterson is the Assistant Professor, Regulatory Science Center of Excellence. Peterson’s research examines transgenic humanized zebrafish used to study human cancers and kidney diseases. He is also researching drug delivery systems and patentable vaccine technology for previously non-preventable food fish diseases, which will enhance worldwide food security.