After a year and a half the RIte Share program is finally boasting some success.
In fact, the health insurance-subsidy plan run by the state Department of Human Services has reached its goal of enrolling 2,000 members by June 30. Enrollment is expected to reach nearly 6,000 by June of 2003.
Created by the Health Reform Rhode Island 2000 legislation, RIte Share was designed to stabilize enrollment and costs associated with the state’s RIte Care program, which provides health care coverage to low-income working families. However, a massive marketing campaign did little to encourage business owners to sign up for the program – which would have reimbursed them for the benefits paid to qualified employees.
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According to Jane Hayward, director of DHS, changes to the program instituted in January of this year – including mandatory participation for all Medicaid-eligible individuals whose employers offered the health care, and a new policy that allowed the department to pay participating employees premium share amount directly to the employee – have made a huge difference.
"Despite a heavy marketing attempt, companies didn’t respond in a way we thought they would," Hayward said. "For the past six months we have been taking the dual approach, working with companies and individuals. We are quite pleased with the number of people that we have been able to enroll."
Hayward said the department will continue to transition Medicaid-eligible families who have access to employer-sponsored health insurance into RIte Share in an effort to contain the rate of growth in the cost of health insurance coverage for Medicaid eligible. The program has already saved $75,000 in state funds in the fiscal year 2002, and is projected to save close to $900,000 in fiscal year 2003.
"The efforts of the Department of Human Services staff have achieved important savings that will help us maintain the high quality of our health care insurance services," said Gov. Lincoln Almond. "The expanded RIte Share enrollments help maintain health insurance that is affordable for low income residents and the state itself, while at the same time supporting enrollment in employer-sponsored health insurance programs."
One of the challenges the RIDHS encountered when implementing the RIte Share program included instituting a cost sharing program for both RIte Share and RIte Care enrollees at the same time that the RIte Share premium assistance program became mandatory.
In addition, Hayward said, her office underestimated just how challenging the task would be.
"Initially, we had been very optimistic. We thought that more businesses would come on board than did," she said. "We also didn’t realize how time consuming or complicated it would be to enroll these folks."
And while she estimates there are nearly 10,000 eligible people currently working at Rhode Island businesses, Hayward said right now her office is currently focused on moving people from RIte Care to RIte Share.
