So how did Hamilton County Job and Family Services plan for Medicaid Expansion so well that we ended up processing applications more quickly than other metro counties in Ohio?
Says Chief Operating Officer Tim McCartney: “We skated to where we thought the puck would be.”
He’s paraphrasing hockey great Wayne Gretzky. He means that HCJFS looked at data and aimed to build a system that looked forward to address issues before they arose.
It worked. Hamilton County processed more than 30,000 applications between January and April, with less than 10 percent taking longer than 30 days. That’s a much lower percentage than in Cuyahoga, Summit and Franklin counties.
HCJFS Director Moira Weir told The Enquirer her office is still receiving a massive influx of applications – sometimes as many as 500 in a day.
“We’re not seeing declines yet,” she said. “We knew this was coming, and I think having a project leader dedicated to this really helped us gear up and manage the bumps along the way.”
