You can now enroll in Oklahoma's new medicaid expansion program

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — UPDATE: Oklahoma Supreme Court finds the state-managed Medicaid program, SoonerSelect, is invalid under Oklahoma law.

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It's been almost a year since Oklahoma voters took Medicaid expansion into their own hands with the passage of State Question 802.

"It was about 11 months ago that Oklahoman's did vote to expand SoonerCare eligibility to older adults 19-64, whose income was 138 percent of the federal poverty level or lower,” said Kevin Corbett, CEO of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA).

RELATED:Adults can begin applying for SoonerCare

For an individual, that's an income of about $18,000 a year, and about $36,500 for a family of four.

The OHCA has spent recent months preparing for what they predict will be an additional 200,000 eligible applicants.

"I expect that this will go extremely well from an application standpoint, from an eligibility approval standpoint, and then also just receiving benefits,” Corbett assured.

Overall, the expansion will cost roughly $1.3 billion, with the federal government covering 90 percent of the cost and the state covering the remaining 10 percent.

"The Oklahoma legislature did recently approve a budget of $164 million in funding for the Medicaid expansion,” said Corbett.

RELATED:Medicaid Expansion: Answering your questions

This opens the door to enrollment, which begins June 1 and will take place over the next 30 days.

Here's what you need to know about how to apply:

• Applications can be submitted online, over the phone or through the mail.
• Benefits will go into effect for those who qualify beginning July 1.
• The newly eligible adult population will be covered under the SoonerCare Traditional Plan until October 1.
• Eligible adults will then transition to a managed care model called SoonerSelect.

"It will be implemented in partnership with four medical plan organizations and three dental plan organizations,” Corbett said.

The SoonerSelect medical plans are Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma, Humana Healthy Horizons in Oklahoma, Oklahoma Complete Health and UnitedHealthcare.

The dental plans are DentaQuest, LIBERTY Dental and MCNA Dental.

For more details about eligibility and enrollment, visit the Oklahoma Health Care Authority website.

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