September 2, 2023
Virginia Mercury: ‘Over 60,000 Virginians used Easy Enrollment in medical assistance program’s first year’
(Republished with permission under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.)
by JW Caterine
Thousands of Virginians recently checked a box on their state tax return indicating they were uninsured and wanted to know if they were eligible for medical assistance programs like Medicaid.
Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services spokesperson Rebecca Dooley said in an email that last year the agency received 63,982 requests for contact as part of the state’s new “Easy” or Facilitated Enrollment program. Over two-thirds asked for information by letter.
Under the new program, people who check the box have their information sent to DMAS, which oversees Virginia’s Medicaid program. The agency can then reach out to the individual or family with information about Medicaid and other assistance programs they might be eligible for.
Virginia’s numbers are comparable to data from the first year of similar programs in other states, including over 60,000 sign-ups in Maryland in 2020, according to research by the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation for healthcare equity.
The Virginia program’s success in connecting a portion of the state’s roughly half-million uninsured with health resources is a bright spot during a tough year of Medicaid unwinding. An estimated 140,000 Virginia residents have lost Medicaid coverage since April after the state reverted back to regular eligibility reviews following the end of the COVID-19 federal public health emergency.
Del. Mark Sickles, D-Arlington, carried the bill in 2021 that directed the Department of Taxation to work with DMAS and the Department of Social Services to add a space to state tax forms where filers could voluntarily share their personal information for use in determining eligibility for medical assistance.
During the same session the General Assembly also passed legislation that initiated plans to roll out the state’s Health Benefit Exchange, the online insurance marketplace that will replace healthcare.gov as the main platform for Virginians to find affordable healthcare. Sickles said the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services encourage states to transition to their own system and offer a process for doing so that Virginia has been following.
“The transition is going well, as far as we know,” Sickles said. “If you don’t qualify [for Medicaid] anymore, we need to help you pick out the insurance product on the exchange that fits your needs.”
The Easy Enrollment program will allow Virginia tax filers to also verify their eligibility for subsidized health insurance starting next year after the state exchange begins operating on Nov. 1.
As the state’s exchange comes online, Sara Cariano, a senior health policy analyst with the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said the Easy Enrollment program could help provide better coordination of Medicaid and private health insurance.
“More integration will help people not fall into a gap between programs,” Cariano said. “Sometimes we’ll see where folks inadvertently end up dually enrolled, which has some pretty complicated and not great tax consequences for them.”
In June, Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine advocated for easy enrollment programs at the federal level, sending a letter with other senators to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Easy Enrollment efforts ultimately aim to let uninsured tax filers request automatic enrollment in Medicaid, CHIP, or zero-premium Marketplace coverage, but these initiatives are facing unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles,” the letter said. “To reach as many eligible uninsured as possible, these states seek to limit the need for people who have already filed their tax returns to complete further paperwork before obtaining health care coverage.”
Virginia’s Easy Enrollment program is not yet at the level of automatic enrollment, but Cariano said that is the goal.
“So often the barrier to coverage is not the eligibility, but the systems and the processes that are preventing people from enrolling,” Cariano said. “And this is really the first small step in hopefully building a large program to address those pieces.”
Cardinal News: ‘Lynchburg is talking about closing schools. Financial constraints and equity questions complicate the decision.’
“Lynchburg City Schools has come to a crossroads.
“Over the past 10 years, the district has seen enrollment decline and school buildings age. Now, after years of study and months of discussion and debate, the school board could soon vote on a recommendation to close two elementary schools.
“The road to this vote has not been an easy one; parent concerns, financial constraints and equity matters have all come into play.”
Read the full story at Cardinal News
FXBG Story of the week
By Jess Kirby
WRITER
At a Fredericksburg City Council meeting on Aug. 22, Gaila Sims, curator of African American history and special projects at the Fredericksburg Area Museum, shared a proposal for the former site of the slave auction block on the corner of William and Charles Streets.
The proposal was created by the auction block workgroup, which has been meeting for the past year, Sims said. The proposal does not include a finalized design but rather ideas for what the final product could look like once completed. By January 2024, the workgroup plans to release a request for proposals from teams of project managers, artists, designers and architects to design and implement the project.
With the goal of contextualizing the block and memorializing those who were impacted by it, Sims said, the final product could incorporate artwork, text and historical dates and images. The workgroup envisions the project extending about 100 feet on both streets leading up to the corner. Embedded in the bricks could be images, such as advertisements for slave sales, or text, such as names of enslaved people sold at the corner, excerpts from slave narratives and significant historical dates from the slave trade, both locally and globally. On the corner, a mosaic could be placed where the block once stood. Sims also said that a light component could be included so visitors can experience the site at night.
The project can also be added to over time as more names and information are uncovered, Sims said.
Sims showed examples of similar memorials to slavery from around the country, such as the Emancipation and Freedom Monument in Richmond, Va., the Paradox of Liberty exhibition at Monticello, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala. The embedded text in the bricks could be similar to Richmond’s T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge, Sims said, which showcases quotes related to the Civil War in Richmond.
But this project will be one of a kind, Sims said.
“I don’t think there is any other city-developed, city-funded, city-installed memorial to enslavement in the U.S. that would combine interpretation, names and public art like this one could,” she said. “I believe this is an incredible opportunity for Fredericksburg to do something unique and thoughtfully rendered and engaging, and I think this idea could be the one to fulfill what the community has asked for regarding this space.”
Though many council members shared praise for the proposed plan, the council has not always been in favor of relocating the auction block. After the Aug. 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, current Vice-Mayor Charlie Frye proposed that the council consider removing the block, according to the Fredericksburg city website. The council held a public forum and online survey but ultimately voted 6–1 for the block to stay, with Frye as the only dissenting vote. However, the council also asked the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience to examine the community’s narratives about the auction block, which was released in a final report on March 13, 2019. Using interviews and focus groups with Fredericksburg residents, the report details the Fredericksburg community’s disagreement on where the block should be and what story it should tell.
After the coalition’s report, Frye once again proposed that the auction block be relocated. This time, on June 11, 2019, the council voted 6–1 in favor of relocating it to the Fredericksburg Area Museum.
Then, the council needed a certificate of appropriateness from the Architectural Review Board. After multiple meetings and a failed motion to deny the certificate, the board’s 90 days to make a decision about the certificate were up, and the city council approved it instead on Nov. 12, 2019.
But the fight over the auction block’s move wasn’t over yet. On Dec. 10, 2019, E.D. Cole Building, L.L.C., and Local Holdings, L.L.C., filed a petition in the Fredericksburg Circuit Court, appealing the council’s granting of the certificate of appropriateness and effectively blocking the plans to move the auction block.
Fredericksburg Circuit Court Judge Sarah Deneke issued an opinion on Feb. 14, 2020, stating that the council’s motion to move the auction block was, in fact, legal. Plans to relocate the block resumed, until E.D. Cole filed another petition — this time in the Virginia Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court rejected the petition. But not before the COVID-19 pandemic would stall the removal once again in April 2020.
While Black Lives Matter protests were ongoing in Fredericksburg that summer, the block remained on the corner, as protesters called for the block to be moved and spray-painted on it.
Finally, the auction block was removed on June 5, 2020, and is now located in the Fredericksburg Area Museum, the centerpiece of an exhibit called “A Monumental Weight: The ‘Auction Block’ in Fredericksburg, Virginia.”
For those interested in learning more about the proposed plan, the Central Rappahannock Regional Library is hosting a virtual lunch and learn event on Sept. 15, the Fredericksburg Area Museum is delivering an in-person presentation on Oct. 5, and there will be a recorded presentation available on the museum’s website beginning in mid-September. According to the Fredericksburg city website, public feedback is welcome and requested by Oct. 16.
The Week Ahead
Monday: An inside look at the Old Fredericksburg Jail
Tuesday: Shaun Kenney returns with his popular and provocative column
Martin Davis is currently working on several stories related to the Spotsy NAACP, data centers, and a growing business problem in Stafford.
New Dominion Podcast: Our newest episode is a discussion with George Washington district candidates for Stafford Board for Supervisors Tom Coen (incumbent) and challenger, Stafford County Sheriff’s Deputy Deuntay Diggs. It drops Monday morning. This week, we have Billy Withers in-studio to give a new perspective on the ongoing ADU debate in Fredericksburg.
Come grow with all the readers who are finding in FXBG Advance the news they can use.
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