SYRACUSE — ACR Health, a nonprofit whose website describes it as a “legacy of AIDS Community Resources,” today contended that the state’s health-insurance exchange is “operating smoothly.”
ACR’s patient navigators have enrolled about 100 people so far for coverage through NY State of Health, Steve Wood, community health coordinator at ACR Health, said during a morning news conference.
NY State of Health is New York’s health-plan marketplace for purchasing health-care coverage under the Affordable Care Act, also known as the federal health-care reform law or Obamacare. As of Oct. 23, NY State of Health reported that 174,000 New Yorkers had signed up for health-insurance plans and more than 37,000 had enrolled.
ACR Health, located at 627 W. Genesee St. in Syracuse, subcontracted with the New York City–based Community Service Society of New York that was awarded a state grant to provide the service, Wood said.
The nonprofit is not among the agencies that partnered with HealtheConnections Health Planning of Syracuse, which is providing similar patient-navigator services through a contract with the state, according to Wood.
Besides the requirement for individuals to have health-insurance coverage by Jan 1, the legislation also calls for raising the income-eligibility level for Medicaid to 133 percent of the federal-poverty level on that same day, Wood said.
The levels, which increase to $15,856 for an individual and $26,951 for a family of three, “greatly” increase the number of people eligible for Medicaid, he added.
ACR Health is a not-for-profit, community-based organization providing prevention, education, and support services to individuals with chronic diseases including
HIV/AIDS, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, asthma, substance-use disorders, and serious mental illnesses, according to its website.
ACR Health serves Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, Madison, Oneida, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties in New York.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com