HomeMy WebLinkAbout20211327.tiffDEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
PO Box A Greeley, CO 80632
Website: www.co.weld.co.us
Administration and Public Assistance (970) 352-1551
Child Support (970) 352-6933
Fax Number (970) 346-7665
Purpose:
The purpose of this document is to both outline the details of Weld County's plan needed to
access additional county administration funding in support of upcoming county response
efforts to address the end of the public health emergency (PHE).
Reason for Action: Background and Context
At the conclusion of the federally determined PHE an eligibility review is required for all
"locked in" Medicaid recipients. This means everyone "locked in" will receive an eligibility
review packet that they must complete, sign, and return to the county office for a
reassessment of their individual program eligibility at that time. It is anticipated that the
PHE will end in December 2021. It is also estimated that there will be 500,000 individuals
locked in at that time in Colorado. Weld County DHS is anticipating that we will see a
locked in population of 28,541 individuals.
In accordance with the expectations outlined in Operational Memo HCPF OM -21-036 Weld
County plans to hire additional, full time, staff to address the increased workload expected
at the expiration of the Public Health Emergency. These additional staff members will be
added through the hiring of an overflow staffing pool of 100% FTE, non -term limited
employees.
Staffing Plan
Med only Processing
Weld County will hire and train nine (9) additional full-time eligibility technicians. These
staff members will not be trained as generalist but rather will work Medicaid only work for
the county. These staff will address both case processing and member calls by increasing
the number of trained technicians on our existing ACD phone lines.
LTSS
Because LTC requires additional lengthy training the county will be leveraging existing
resources to support this workload. The LTC unit consists of five fully trained eligibility
technicians. We will be training two additional Medicaid only technicians in all LTC aspects
and they will be able to respond to increased workload for LTC programs specifically. In
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addition to this group we have already trained two Program Resource Specialist who are
subject matter experts for the county, in LTC programs as well. And finally, we have three
quality case reviewers who are trained in LTC programs should we need even more
resources in this area.
Hearings and Appeals
Weld County is not anticipating significant increases to our hearings and appeals requests.
We currently have adequate staffing and bandwidth in this internal organization. We do
plan to formalize a communication plan specific to customer awareness as we near the end
of the PHE. We also anticipate that the state will also pursue a similar member awareness
campaign that we can leverage as well.
Customer Service Staff (CSS)
Weld County will be adding two (2) additional full time Customer Support Specialist who
will assist the existing CSS teams with managing incoming work through various paths
along with scanning and uploading documents for easeful eligibility technician access.
Other Staff
Weld County intends to temporarily promote an existing Eligibility Technician into a
supervisory role to provide oversite and support to the new team of Medicaid only
technicians. This will create leadership development opportunity for an existing employee
and expedite onboarding efforts.
Timeline
Weld County anticipates that we will start the recruitment process for the positions
identified above in late May with the plan to have everyone onboard and in training by July
1, 2021. We anticipate all training to be complete by September 1, 2021.
Training
Weld County has an internal training team consisting of three (3) Staff Development Center
(SDC) certified trainers. We further expect that two (2) additional SDC certified trainers
will be in place before the end of the calendar year. The training team is currently in the
process of training two of our existing eligibility technicians in LTC programs. This will
address the LTC support needs first. From there we will schedule MAGI/Non-MAGI
training for the nine new eligibility technicians to begin on July 1, 2021. We anticipate
them to be fully trained and processing cases by August 23, 2021.
Forecasting Data Used
Eligibility Teams
It is anticipated the PHE declaration will formally end in late December 2021. As of April
12th, Weld County has 23,263 individuals "locked in" to Medicaid programs.
In reviewing the last year of data, the county has experienced an average increase of 2.3%
per month of locked in individuals. Using this percentage, we can reasonably forecast that
Weld County will have approximately 28,541 individuals locked in by the end of the year.
Each of these individuals will receive an eligibility review packet and be prompted to
complete, sign, and return the packet to the county office for processing.
Managing Workload and Call Volume:
The addition of two CSS team members will help to managing the incoming work through
the lobbies and mail room. This work will include customer interaction, document
screening, scanning, and uploading efforts.
Weld County does not currently have a "call center" and the county manages client calls
through an ACD phone line system. In early 2021 the county upgraded this system to
include advanced customer center features that will indicate the callers place in line and
the estimated wait time. The new feature also allows the customer to self-select a call back
when it is their turn to prevent them from needing to remain on the phone while waiting to
be served. From this system we can track client wait times which as of April 2021 were
averaging less than five minutes.
Eligibility staff are assigned to cover the phone lines during business hours and with the
addition of the newly funded med only eligibly technicians to respond to the PHE end the
county plans to add additional staffing to the phone lines. The county will also explore the
temporary addition of an option to field questions about the eligibility review packets that
are received by clients.
Chloe Rempel
From:
Sent:
To:
Cc:
Subject:
Attachments:
Hi Mariah,
Alison Pegg
Thursday, May 13, 2021 2:16 PM
Mariah Higgins; CTB
HS -Contract Management
RE: ITEM OF COMMUNICATION: Weld County Staffing Plan per HCPF OM 21-036
HCPF Staffing Plan Weld County.docx
Lesley and I had a call with Chloe to better understand what additional context we can provide when we e-mail CTB
items of communication to help you all know how to process it. With that understanding, I wanted to follow up on this
item of communication to give you some additional information.
During the public health emergency, all Medicaid clients were not allowed to be disenrolled from benefits. The Colorado
Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF)
received supplemental funding to provide resources to counties to address these locked in cases. To utilize these
resources, our Assistance Payments Division was required to submit a staffing plan to HCPF. The Weld County BOCC
approved this staffing plan during a work session that took place on May 4, 2021. The attached approved staffing plan
and e-mail below were sent to HCPF on May 10, 2021.
Thank you!
Alison Pegg
Contract Management and Compliance Coordinator
Weld County Dept. of Human Services
315 N. 11th Ave., Bldg A
PO Box A
Greeley, CO 80632
ft(970) 400-6603
Contract Management Extension: 6556
A (970) 353-5212
apeggCLieweldgov.com
Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the
person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you
have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure,
copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the
named recipient is strictly prohibited.
From: Mariah Higgins <mhiggins@weldgov.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2021 9:21 AM
To: Alison Pegg <apegg@weldgov.com>; CTB <CTB@co.weld.co.us>
Subject: RE: ITEM OF COMMUNICATION: Weld County Staffing Plan per HCPF OM 21-036
Received. Thank you!
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Mariah Higgins
Deputy Clerk to the Board
Clerk to the Board's Office
Weld County
1150 O Street
Greeley, CO 80631
Tel: (970) 400-4225
Email: mhiggins(a�weldgov.corn
Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended
only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential
or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately
notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the
taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than
the named recipient is strictly prohibited.
From: Alison Pegg <apegg@weldgov.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2021 9:14 AM
To: CTB <CTB@co.weld.co.us>
Cc: HS -Contract Management <HS-ContractManagement@co.weld.co.us>
Subject: ITEM OF COMMUNICATION: Weld County Staffing Plan per HCPF OM 21-036
Good morning CTB,
The attached plan has been submitted to the State by our Assistance Payments Division.
Thank you,
Alison Pegg
Contract Management and Compliance Coordinator
Weld County Dept. of Human Services
315 N. 11th Ave., Bldg A
PO Box A
Greeley, CO 80632
lit (970) 400-6603
Contract Management Extension: 6556
.'=1, (970) 353-5212
P apegggweldgov.com
Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the
person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you
have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure,
copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the
named recipient is strictly prohibited.
2
From: Andie Garnand <agarnand@weldgov.com>
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2021 11:55 AM
To: HCPFCountyRelations@state.co.us
Cc: HS -Contract Management <HS-ContractManagement@co.weld.co.us>; Jamie Ulrich <ulrichjj@weldgov.com>; Tami
Grant <tgrant@weldgov.com>
Subject: Weld County Staffing Plan per HCPF OM 21-036
Good morning HCPF partners,
Attached please find Weld County's Staffing Plan per your request. Please let me know if you have any concerns or
questions. Once we receive your approval we will proceed with our hiring and onboarding efforts for this project.
Kind regards,
Andie
Andie Garnand
Assistance Payments Division Director
Weld County Department of Human Services
315 N. 11th Ave. Bldg. C
P.O. Box A
Greeley, CO 80632
www.weldgov.com
Direct Line 970-400-6300
Main Line 970-352-1551
FAX 970-353-5215
Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for
the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise
protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return
e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the
contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited.
Vision:
The people of Weld County are connected to the resources needed to thrive in the community
and feel safe and empowered.
Mission:
Engaging and partnering with the community to improve the safety, health and well-being of
individuals and families through the delivery of responsive and collaborative services.
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