/ Modified oct 26, 2015 3 p.m.

State Caps Enrollment For Medicare+Medicaid Recipients

No new recipients to be added to the dual insurance coverage program

Arizona is capping enrollment in health insurance for people who receive Medicaid benefits for health care, and Medicare benefits for low-income residents to cover prescription premiums.

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About 18,000 people receive both benefits, said Jennifer Carusetta, the chief legislative liaison at AHCCCS, Arizona's Medicaid program. The state stopped adding coverage for new people Oct. 1, she said.

Those affected by the enrollment freeze are Medicare recipients who qualify for low-income Medicaid assistance to cover their medical prescription premiums, Carusetta said.

The Medicare prescription premium costs are expected to increase by more than 50 percent next year, adding another $13 million to Arizona's budget required to provide those services to low-income residents.

In a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Arizona's director of AHCCCS said the department instituted the enrollment freeze because it does not know how much money it will receive the federal government pay for the dual recipients for most of 2015 or any of 2016.

"Given these uncertainties over the remaining allotment for 2015...the State is at significant financial risk if it cannot establish an appropriate budget and manage enrollment to that budget," the letter says.

The 18,000 Arizonans who already receive both benefits will keep them, Carusetta said.

"We can continue to cover those folks as long as the dollars we're using does not exceed" the federally allocated amount, Carusetta said.

Those who do not get added to the dual coverage program will still receive Medicare coverage, but they will not get Medicaid assistance to pay prescription premiums, Carusetta said.

“Remembering that we cannot exceed the amount that we’ve been allocated by the federal government to cover this population, we do have concerns that that funding will not be available from the federal government to pay those additional premium costs," she said. "And we’ve not received notification that funding will be made available at the states.”

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