What's new at MLS

Greetings and welcome to September The following email is to give you some brief updates on recent SNAP policy items of interest. 1) SNAP and Medical Expense Deduction: In its August 2015 Transitions Magazine, DTA included a number of Policy Hotline questions and answers for…

1. MassHealth Renewals. MassHealth is about half-way through the process of renewing eligibility for 1.2 million beneficiaries before the end of 2015. Renewals for People with Disabilities Underway-Workaround needed for some adults About 36,000 households with at least one member with a…

Fallon Total Care, one of the plans contracted with MassHealth and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide One Care as part of the Massachusetts capitated Financial Alignment Demonstration, has decided that they will be leaving One Care as of September 30, 2015. Fallon Total…

Please see attached letter from Commissioner McCue regarding changes at the Springfield State St. DTA office.    TODAY, July 31, will be the last day for walk-in services at the State Street location. Starting on Monday, August 3, DTA will move services for walk-in clients to…

Hot off the press for those of you not at the SNAP Elder Working group meeting (which Lauren also attended). Miriam Kaufman is the Assistant SNAP Director, who many of you may know as an excellent worker and supervisor for many years. Lauren will be at the July 28th SNAP Coalition meeting as…

We have just received word from staff at The Open Door in Gloucester that the My Account Page (MAP) has been seriously malfunctioning. Some of the days last week and this past week, the MAP apparently listed notices and forms sent to SNAP households, but when you downloaded the…

It is not too late for MassHealth members who lost benefits for failing to reapply to reinstate their coverage back to the date it ended, and you can help What happened? Almost 300,000 MassHealth renewal notices were mailed in January and February giving 500,000 MassHealth members March…

FNS Agrees that DTA Must Stop Erroneously Counting "Recouped" or withheld Social Security Benefits (same rule for recouped UI and VA Pension) We are continuing to hear of cases where DTA is incorrectly counting in the SNAP calculation the income that Social Security is recouping for a…

The following is an EOHHS press release dated April 17 on personnel changes at MassHealth. Special congratulations to Robin Callahan for a well-deserved promotion! MassHealth Restructured To Improve Care, Rein In Costs BOSTON The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services…

Alert to legal aid offices and social service providers about MassHealth terminations and the availability of MassHealth Renewal Extensions: It is not too late for renewing MassHealth members who receive termination notices to reapply and reinstate their coverage back to the date it ended, and…