Program History

In 1985, the United States Congress passed into law the Indigent Care Act that required each state to fund healthcare services for its indigent citizens. In turn, the State of Texas pushed this federal mandate down to the counties or local hospital districts. The Montgomery County Hospital District's Healthcare Assistance Program (MCHD HCAP) offers healthcare assistance to people who do not have private insurance and meet certain eligibility criteria for their Plans. Prior to its sale, those services were provided as a normal function of the MCHD-owned community hospital. Today, healthcare services are provided by MCHD through agreements with local physicians and other medical facilities.

On August 1, 2006, MCHD Board action passed to further improve the HCAP, and many of the administrative processes pertaining to the indigent care program were outsourced to a third party administrator, Boon-Chapman (B-C). Although MCHD maintains the Eligibility Management portion for program approval, B-C will assume responsibility for the administration of claims, verification of eligibility, and customer service.  Medical Management functions will be performed by Prime Dx (a division of B-C) and included utilization review and case management. 

Most recently in March of 2007, the MCHD Board split the healthcare assistance program into two separate plans.  The Montgomery County Indigent Care Plan (MCICP) operates at 0-21% of the Federal Poverty Income Limit (FPIL) and the Medical Assistance Plan (MAP) operates at 22-150% of FPIL.  Although service delivery remains the same for both programs, the MCICP eligibility requirements are less rigid.  Please refer to the respective handbooks for more detailed information on both programs, which can be found at the following link. 

Link: HCAP Handbooks

Boon-Chapman (B-C)

For B-C information, such as questions about a referral, program benefits, the HCAP provider directory (such as where you can go to find a physician), co-pay or pharmacy program information, you may call B-C directly at 1-800-213-7524 or you may click here to visit the B-C website.

Link:  www.boonchapman.com