Wolf administration sets timeline to reorganize Medicaid in Pa.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration plans to transfer more than a million adult Medicaid enrollees into a new benefits plan in the coming months, officials said Monday, as he goes about dismantling changes his Republican predecessor had sought to make to the program.

The Department of Human Services said it hopes to finish the process by Sept. 30.

When finished, the department expects that every adult on Medicaid will be served by HealthChoices, the program that former Gov. Tom Corbett had sought to replace with a new benefits program called Healthy Pennsylvania.

Healthy Pennsylvania was to go into effect Jan. 1, just as Medicaid’s income guidelines expanded to allow hundreds of thousands more lower-income adults to get coverage under the 2010 federal health care law. It had three plans for three groups, and it introduced a new system for determining who would get which coverage plan.

Advocates for the poor, however, have sued to stop aspects of Healthy Pennsylvania, the federal government never approved part of it and enrollees have complained the application system was confusing or said they had trouble getting coverage for dialysis, mental health counseling or addiction treatment.