You asked a number of follow-up questions based on an earlier OLR Report, 2005-R-0017. Specifically, you wanted to know (1) the names of the top employers of all parents of children receiving HUSKY A benefits (not just employers of parents who themselves receive HUSKY A coverage), (2) the same names for the adults who are not receiving HUSKY A, (3) the number of HUSKY A child recipients whose parents are ineligible for HUSKY A coverage, (4) the state and federal cost per person for HUSKY A and B coverage, and (5) employer information for Temporary Family Assistance (TFA) and Food Stamps recipients.

DSS recently provided us with hours worked data for the top 25 employers of working HUSKY A recipients. We have included this table at the end of this report for your review (Attachment 3).

We are still awaiting the number of HUSKY A child recipients whose parents are ineligible for coverage, which we will forward to you when we receive it.

Wal-Mart, Stop and Shop, and Dunkin Donuts are the top three employers of adults who are the parents or caretaker relatives of children who receive HUSKY A benefits. Combined, these companies employ 2,607 adults. Most (80%) of these adults are also receiving HUSKY A coverage.

The top five employers of adults whose children or wards are receiving HUSKY A benefits but who are not themselves recipients (non-recipients) include Wal-Mart (204), Stop and Shop (175), McDonald’s (146), Dunkin Donuts (133), and Laidlaw (115). (Wal-Mart and Stop and Shop, respectively, are the top two employers of adults receiving HUSKY A, as reported in 2005-R-0017. ) The top 25 employers in this category employ 1,692 adults, 63% of whom work more than 30 hours per week, with only 13% working less than 20 hours a week. (See Attachment 1 for a complete listing of the top 25 employers of non-recipient employees and hours worked information. )

DSS pays the managed care organizations (MCO) serving the HUSKY A and B populations “capitated” rates, which is essentially a per person monthly rate that is expected to cover the MCOs’ monthly costs for managing the health care of that person. The rate is the same for children and adults enrolled in HUSKY A.

For HUSKY A, the monthly payment is $ 189. 80 for FY 05. This will rise to $ 195. 49 in FY 06. For HUSKY B, there are two capitated rates. For Band 1 (family income is up to 185% of the federal poverty level (FPL)), the rate is $ 156. 87 in FY 05; this rate rises to $ 161. 57 in FY 06. DSS pays the MCOs $ 132. 88 monthly in FY 05 for families in Band 2 (family income between 185% and 300% of the FPL). This rises to $ 136. 86 in FY 06. The lower payments for Part B recipients reflect the fact that families have cost sharing requirements (premiums and co-payments) that Part A families do not have.

The federal government reimburses the state 50% of what it spends for Part A; the federal block grant that funds HUSKY B pays 65% to the state’s 35%.

DSS provided employer information for TFA and Food Stamp recipients for those employers employing at least 10 recipients (see Attachment 2a and Attachment 2b). For both programs, Stop and Shop was the top employer, followed by Wal-Mart. Of the 904 TFA recipients working for these employers, 66% worked at least 20 hours per week, with a little more than 25% working over 30 hours weekly.

Table 1 lists the top 25 employers of parents and caretaker relatives of children receiving HUSKY A in December 2004. This includes both those adults who themselves receive HUSKY A and those who do not receive benefits but their children do. (In OLR Report 2005-R-0017 we focused only on those adults who were receiving HUSKY A. )

[1] The employer was not in the top 25 for this category of adults. Consequently, we do not know the number of these employers’ non-recipient employees.

RC/NA: ro

Attachment 1: Top 25 Employers of “HUSKY A” Non-Recipient Parents/Caretakers (Includes TFA Medicaid)

This table represents Husky A employment data from DSS' Eligibility Management System (EMS) for the month of December 2004. EMS captures the employer name in a general text field which makes it difficult to unduplicate the total number of employers. If unduplicated completely, the employee counts would be slightly higher.

Please note that 'hours of employment' data collected in EMS is not required for eligibility purposes and therefore is not subject to verification.

Attachment 2a: Employers of TFA Recipients

This table represents TFA employment data from DSS’ Eligibility Management System (EMS) for the month of December 2004. EMS captures the employer name in a general text field which makes it difficult to unduplicate the total number of employers. If unduplicated completely, the employee counts would be somewhat higher.

Please note that 'hours of employment' data collected in EMS is not required for eligibility purposes and therefore is not subject to verification.

Attachment 2b: Employers of FS Recipients