What's new at MLS

The latest news from the Health Connector & MassHealth- coverage in Commonwealth Care and Medical Security Plan extended to June 30; temporary coverage for people who applied for subsidized insurance in January 2014 and a "fast path" for people with unsubsidized…

At 2:35 PM today, the United States Senate voted to pass the "Farm Bill" or Agricultural Act of 2014. The Act includes $8.6B in cuts to the SNAP program, cuts which can potentially affect up to 125,000 Massachusetts SNAP households, many of whom are seniors and persons with disabilities,…

Tomorrow the Governor releases his proposed budget for the next fiscal year.  Meanwhile, the health coverage landscape gets ever more confusing. Attached and reprinted below is our best effort to describe the Jan 1 transition with links to information from MassHealth & the…

Please note, the NEXT SNAP Coalition meeting in Boston is Tuesday, January 28th from 10 AM to Noon.    DTA and the eNotification pilot in Massachusetts:   DTA has started the process of collecting both email addresses and written permission…

We are continuing to receive calls and emails about the Massachusetts EBT photo policy from community partners and individual recipients. This email is to give you a brief update on the EBT photo card implementation and to ask you to continue to flag EBT card cases, even if…

MassHealth has sent out notices to people now enrolled in Basic and Essential as  well as some people now in Comm. Care or the Health Safety Net about their coverage changing to MassHealth CarePlus on Jan. 1.   People with disabilities or other special health care needs can choose to…

We just received word from the Commissioner's office that they have agreed to issue overnight EBT cards to any SNAP recipients whose EBT photo card did not reach them and their current blue card is not active or the envelope was returned to DTA by the postal service as undeliverable. As you…

At the SNAP Coalition meeting on Tuesday we heard from DTA that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is currently updating databases that DTA workers use to verify Social Security (also called RSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The update will continue through…

1.  Changes to Virtual Gateway SNAP/MassHealth Combo Apps due to Health Care Reform:  We are writing to let SNAP Coalition Members know that the MassHealth Virtual Gateway (VG) portal will be converting to the new health care exchange portal or ConnectorCare system…

DTA has just issued guidance implementing the new EBT Photo card requirements: Operations Memo 2013-57A and Operations Memo 2013-58A. The bulk of the Photo EBT card changes and guidelines are detailed in Operations Memo 2013-57. This email summarizes the key information you should know as Ops…