Health plan Facilitated Enrollment (FE) is a critical part of the Medicaid infrastructure which has helped millions of New Yorkers access and retain insurance, including 240,000 new individuals in 2010 (“$100M Medicaid Marketing Furor,” Feb. 22).
There is no mechanism to enroll individuals into Medicaid in New York other than Facilitated Enrollment.
Local social services districts do not have the capacity to handle the tens of thousands of applications. If the FE program were to cease, the result would be an increase in the uninsured accessing an already strained health care system.
Ultimately, while the state may save $57 million (not $113.6 million, as The Post suggests) in the first year, this proposal will actually increase costs and strain providers’ scarce resources as more individuals lose coverage.
Tom Early, CEO, Health Plus, Brooklyn