Georgia to Launch Pilot Internet Application Program for Long Term Care Services
Georgia Department of Community Health Commissioner Russ Toal announced July 12 that the department will soon launch a pilot program offering online applications to nursing home and community care patients, the Florida Times-Union reports. Patients will use the online applications to supply income information to the state, which will provide "preliminary" indications of their eligibility for Medicaid, as well as other long term care services. The state's Division of Family and Children Services will make all final eligibility determinations. Fred Watson, executive director of the Georgia Nursing Home Association, said that the "quicker" assistance eligibility determinations would better serve patients and improve homes' "bottom lines." In May, the department launched a successful Internet application process for PeachCare, the state's CHIP program. Since that application's inception, more than 2,000 eligible families have signed up for PeachCare coverage. Explaining the state's decision to offer online applications for long term care, Toal noted, "PeachCare taught us the possibility of the Internet and how we could really be taking advantage of technology to help people." The long term care application pilot will involve eight nursing homes in five Georgia counties; if successful, the program will open statewide (Williams, Florida Times-Union, 7/12).
Access to Family Planning
In other Georgia health news, the Bush administration has dismissed the Georgia Department of Community Health's request to extend contraceptive and sterilization coverage for new mothers receiving Medicaid from two months to two years, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Medicaid recipients have "long been eligible" for family planning services for the first two months after they give birth, but the health department wants Medicaid to cover services such as condoms, birth control pills, hormone injections and tubal ligation for new mothers for up to two years following delivery. The health department did not anticipate the denial, as in the past at least 12 other states have successfully lobbied for extended Medicaid coverage for family planning services (although the Journal-Constitution does not specify whether this was prior to the Bush administration). But Center for Medicaid and State Operations Acting Director Peggy Thompson has informed the state that the administration "would not approve any family planning waivers" to extend services beyond two months because it does not wish to extend a family planning-specific program. While waiting for a reply from the federal government, the state spent $163,000 to provide family planning services to low-income mothers (Bixler, Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 7/12).
