Health card backlog cleared
Inuvik office catching up on processing 38,000 renewal forms this year
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 14, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A backlog of health-care card applications that was causing problems in the spring is now largely cleared up.
When the NWT decided in 2010 that health care cards would expire, the decision was made to have all the new cards issued that year expire in 2013. As a result, approximately 38,000 cards expired this year.
"We wanted to make sure it was consistent for all residents so they all had the same expiry date," said Derek Elkin, assistant deputy minister of corporate services with the Department of Health and Social Services.
The department expected the surge in renewal applications this year and hired two additional staff, bringing the number of employees at the Inuvik office responsible for processing the applications to seven.
Even so, with thousands of renewal forms pouring in, the office fell behind. In the spring, MLAs raised the alarm in the legislative assembly, saying their constituents were not receiving their new cards and had to pay up front for their health care.
On May 30, Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen told the assembly dealing with complaints from constituents who could not get their cards renewed in a timely fashion "has turned into an almost full-time job for us in our constituency."
"You would think that issuing new health care cards on a new program that coincides with people's birthdays would not have been this difficult," she said at the time.
Elkin admitted there was a problem, but said no resident was denied health care as a result.
"In the case of emergency care, no one is ever denied care when they present themselves at a health centre or in an emergency room," he said. "If the person's health care card had expired, the staff generally try to help the person, at that time, apply for a health care card.
"In some instances, they may have been required to pay for services up front and then they were reimbursed later when they actually got their health care card ... I'm not aware of very many of those happening."
To date, the Inuvik office has received approximately 26,300 renewal forms and has processed 25,500 of those.
Residents who apply for their new card one month before their birth date - the day their card would expire - can expect to receive their renewal on time, said Elkin.
"It took us a little while to catch up," he said.
The newly-issued cards are set to expire in three years. Eventually, the department expects the number of renewals per year to even out.
"It's going to take a few years, but with new people moving into the territory and others leaving, over time it should flatten out," he said.
