The expansion of Medicaid means Hamilton County Job & Family Services is processing about 200 more applications a day.

That’s about 1,000 a week more than before the new benefits kicked in Jan. 1. The application period started Dec. 9. Since that date, HCJFS has received 5,224 applications under the expanded program that is expected to help mostly low-income adults with no children living at home.

Officials estimate that about 366,000 more Ohioans will qualify for Medicaid now that it extends to people with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level - $15,856 for a single person or $32,499 for a family of four.

About 42,000 Hamilton County more residents are expected to fit Medicaid criteria under the new income guidelines. They will be in addition to the more than 175,000 residents already receiving benefits.

“We’re keeping up now,” said Tim McCartney, HCJFS’ chief operating officer. “We have to process them within 30 days of the application.”

Because of state system outages in most of December, “we worked some overtime to make sure we stayed on top of it.”

Staff members are currently working on applications dated Jan. 13.

McCartney tapped Judy Leonard, who’s a team leader in the child care unit, to oversee the expansion project. She has still had to keep up with her child care duties also.“Judy has done a great job,” McCartney said. “She’s just someone I knew would get the job done.”

Online is still the best way to apply: www.benefits.ohio.gov. Seventy-four percent of people are applying via the internet.

“Yes, unless it’s absolutely impossible for you to do so, apply online,” he said. “It gets to us much quicker and we can process it more quickly also.”

The best way to ensure the fastest response is to fill out the application completely. If all the information’s there, the computer cross-checks it with other federal data, including matching earnings amounts with the Internal Revenue Service. If all the data checks out, McCartney said, “that person will get a Medicaid card in the mail without us even touching it.”