This information supplements handouts in members packets. 1. Welcome and Introductions Beth Giesting, executive director of the Hawaii Primary Care Association, opened the meeting at 10:00 AM and welcomed the thirty attendees. 2. Announcements a. Kids Health Insurance Week was a huge success and Barbara Luksch, Hawaii Covering Kids project director, thanked everyone for their participation and support. Med-QUEST had approximately 1300 additional applications sent to their offices and when enrollment data are available a full report will be published. b. Piilani Pang, program director for The Hawaii Uninsured Project, explained they are conducting community meetings to connect with people who can better inform them about uninsured issues so if there are groups they can talk with please contact her at 948-5074. Also, they are looking for survey information either through hard copies or via their web site at The Hawaii Uninsured Project Survey. 3. Presentation: Families After Welfare by Kris Foster Welfare reform became effective in 1996 and a five year (sixty months) lifetime limit was placed on financial benefits. Hawaii will begin seeing the effects starting in December 2001 when approximately 2000 persons in 717 families lose their cash assistance. These are key points: * It only affects families with an adult who is considered employable. Single adults eligible for cash assistance are disabled therefore they are not affected by the limit. * The limit only affects cash assistance and not health insurance, food stamps, or child care. * Each month after December 2001, additional families will reach the limit and lose benefits. * The entire family loses cash assistance benefits when the adult with the largest number of months reaches his/her five year limit. * In addition to the five year limit on cash assistance Hawaii's welfare reform program called Pursuit of New Opportunities (PONO) has a reduced grant after two months, and these disregards: increased earnings, increased assets ($5,000), motor vehicle, income of a minor or dependent students, and student loans, grants, and scholarships. * A convicted drug felon who is complying with required treatment is eligible, however a fugitive felon is not. * A major goal is to encourage adults to be employed so a portion of earned income is not counted; it pays to work. * Eligibility determination: a household is an adult with kids and they must be blood relatives; due to legal responsibility rules, household members are not separated out; however if the adult applying is not legally responsible for the child (for example grandparents raising grandkids) an adult can apply for the kids only and the state will seek child support from the parents. * Households in which all adults meet one of the following criteria are not subject to time limitations or grant reductions because they are considered not employable: people with disabilities including substance abuse, caring for a child under six months old, caring for an ill or incapacitated family member, non-needy caretaker, AmeriCorps member, domestic violence victim, heads of households who are minor (teen) parents, and/or at least 60 years old. 4. Presentation: Transitional Medicaid by Pearl Tsuji In 1996, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was replaced by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and TANF was officially separated from Medicaid. Previously if you qualified for financial assistance you automatically qualified for Medicaid. Now, however, financial assistance and health insurance are to be determined separately. Hawaii's delinking process will be going into effect, possibly starting in December. * The term 1931 refers to section thirty-one of Title IX (Medicaid). It established Transitional Medicaid which can be considered "1931 QUEST." * The criteria for Transitional Medicaid is the state's 16 July 1996 AFDC plan outlining the standards used, including income and assets. In Hawaii the FPL is 100% but there are various income deductions. * Adults applying with kids could possibly fall into Transitional Medicaid, therefore a Med-QUEST application will be screened first for this program. * The advantage of being in Transitional Medicaid is that if the customers become ineligible, most probably due to increased income, coverage can continue for up to six or twelve additional months. * Barbara and Pearl will develop a simple handout that outreach workers can use to inform families about this program. Problem: asset information is now required for kids. Barbara asked that if a parent/guardian absolutely knows she/he wants health insurance only for a child, is this necessary? Pearl explained that if asset information is not provided, Med-QUEST will check for regular or expanded QUEST. In these situations, outreach workers should write "CHILD ONLY APP" on the front of the application as well as in the asset section. 5. Next Meeting Our next meeting is Wednesday, 13 February 2002 at 10:00 AM at the Honolulu YWCA on Richards Street. The focus is on immigrants and what programs are available without compromising visa status and U.S. citizenship application.