County presents draft SOPs for Health Care Assistance Program; commissioners ask for clearer appeals timelines

Dona Ana County’s Health and Human Services department presented draft standard operating procedures for the county’s Health Care Assistance Program on July 28, describing the program’s eligibility rules, documentation standards and next administrative steps.

Jamie Michael (HHS) said the manual formalizes processes for the existing per-encounter program while expanding options for applicants to demonstrate income. The SOPs allow nontraditional income documentation and self-attestation in some cases so “more options are available,” Michael said, but staff and their legal consultant warned that broadening evidence types can increase verification workload.

Consultant Lynn Gallagher outlined the appeals approach and recommended flexibility consistent with other jurisdictions that use self-attestation to reach historically underserved applicants. Commissioners requested more specificity on timeframes (for example, a fixed number of business days for staff and contractors to act once all documentation is submitted). HHS said internal deadlines and contractor response windows are already used operationally and pledged to add specificity—targeted examples included contractor responses within five business days and county determinations within 10 business days after full documentary submission.

Other SOP components described application uploads to a secure system, quarterly reporting to the commission and a plan to develop premium-assistance SOPs later this year. Commissioners asked to review SOP edits in a forthcoming work session and requested the department provide monthly reports and a timetable for pilot program SOPs.

Outcome: SOPs accepted for training and implementation; commissioners requested additional edits and a work session for deeper review prior to final adoption.