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Duplin residents without health insurance have jumped at the opportunity to have health coverage through the Medicaid expansion, reaching a total of 2,317 beneficiaries to date according to Annie Murrell, Duplin County Social Services director.
Murrell told the Duplin Journal that they have also seen an increase of people applying for other programs, like food assistance and help paying electric bills.
“We have had increases in other programs, such as our food and nutrition. We’ve seen an increase in applications there, and our crisis program,” said Murrell, explaining that a lot of beneficiaries are applying online and learning about other programs available.
Data from the NC Medicaid, Division of Health Benefits shows that 58.1% of those currently enrolled in Duplin County are females and 41.9% are males with 40.3% of beneficiaries falling into the 19-29 age bracket, 21% are between the ages of 30-39, 16% are 40-49 years old, 14.9% fall into the 50-59 age bracket and 6.8% are 60-64. In Duplin County 228 beneficiaries are documented non-citizens.
Despite departmental shortages the staff is managing to keep up with the challenges.
“We are still losing employees to our neighboring counties that pay significantly more money than we do… so, we’re trying to work through that,” said Murrell, adding that they have quite a few dedicated employees that love working at the agency.
“We do have a good percentage that won’t leave, but we do have a lot that are leaving,” said Murrell, explaining that in the last two months, at least four employees left to go work for a county that offered better pay. She also explained that usually some individuals know whether that is the type of work that they want to do within their first two years, so that also plays a factor on employee turnover.
“In Medicaid, I have 52 positions, and out of 52, I have eight vacancies, which is a 15% vacancy rate,” said Murrell, adding that across the board they have a 20.89% vacancy rate for the department, which is the highest that it’s been in the last two years.
“I would say retaining staff is, right now, one of the challenges.”
