Virtual Gateway
Common Intake 4.7 Announcement	
	
March 2010	

	Important Changes to Common Intake Health Assistance Questions and Screens, effective March 29, 2010: 
	The text and graphics on the Application Instructions page were updated to make it easier for users to understand and follow. 

	On the Personal Information page, the “school questions” noted below are now mandatory if the answer is Yes to “Is this person currently registered for at least 75% of a full-time curriculum at a college, university or other institution of high learning that grants a certificate, diploma, or degree?” question:
•	Is this person’s school in Massachusetts?
•	Is this person planning on getting health insurance coverage from this school, but is waiting for the coverage to start?
•	What is the date that the school health insurance coverage will start?

	On the Additional Personal Information page, the “accident or injury” question has been changed to: “Do you or any family member need health care because of an accident or injury?”  In addition, the dropdown questions for this screen have also changed.

	The following health insurance questions, as shown below, are now mandatory on the Salary Wage Income Information page:  
•	Is health insurance that would cover doctor’s visits and hospitalizations currently offered (Answer Yes even if this person cannot get it now, chose not to sign, or dropped the insurance that was available)?
•	If health insurance is not currently offered, was it offered in the past six months?

	A new Rental Income page has been created.  It appears before the Other Income Information page. All questions related to rental income were pulled out of the Other Income pages and placed on the new page.

	The “top-level” Other Income Information page will now be asked separately for each individual in the household. 
	Based on the response to the top-level Other Income question, the Other Income Details page will display for each applicable individual.

	
	On the Other Income Details page, the following questions will now be mandatory when “Other Income Type” response is “Unemployment Compensation”:
•	If income type is unemployment compensation, does this person’s unemployment compensation check from the State of Massachusetts?
•	If income type is unemployment compensation, in the 12 months before becoming unemployed, did this person work for an employer in Massachusetts, excluding federal employers such as the U.S. Postal Service?

	The Fishing Industry Insurance Access Information page will now be mandatory for each individual in the household applying for MassHealth age 19 or older.  
	The Armed Services Insurance Access Information page will now be mandatory for each individual in the household applying for MassHealth age 19 or older.  Based on the answer to the top question “Is [person’s name] or [person’s name]’s spouse in one of the uniformed services on active duty, a retired military service member or a medal of honor recipient?”, the additional mandatory questions, shown below, will be asked:
•	Medal of Honor Recipient? (Yes/No)
•	In National Guard/Reserves? (Yes/No)
•	On Active Duty? (Yes/No)
•	Retired Service Member? (Yes/No)
NOTE: At least one of the answers to the additional mandatory questions above should be “Yes” since the top question was answered as Yes.

	The text and graphics on the Confirmation of Submittal and Next Steps page were updated to make it easier for users to understand and follow.

	The Virtual Gateway Self Service page is a new page where consumers are now directed to from www.mass.gov, SNAP Benefits Page, and the MassHealth website. Consumers have the choice on this page of screening for potential program eligibility, applying for SNAP, or registering/logging into the new public facing My Account Page.

For more information, see the March 2010 Common Intake Newsletter or visit the new page at:  www.mass.gov/vg/selfservice. 

Contact Information:
MassHealth Policy Questions?   
Please call MassHealth Customer Service:
1-800-841-2900 
TTY: 1-800-497-4648

Virtual Gateway  Questions?
Please call Virtual Gateway Customer Service:
1-800-421-0938, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
TTY: 617-988-3301