Stephanie Grilo Bernallilo, NM created on Mon December 9, 2013

I had been meaning to apply for Medicaid, myself, for a few weeks now. However, with the first day of open enrollment, followed by a few months of outreach and identifying barriers in the enrollment process in New Mexico, I could hardly find the time to sit down and go through the application process.

I applied this morning at our Health Action office in Bernaillio, NM. I typed www.yes.state.nm.us into my browswer heading and up popped the NM HDS assitance website. I created a login, very simple, and then began the application process. The first few sets of questions were pretty standard: Birthdate, Address, citizenship, ethnicity, etc. I continued along for probably a good three pages of questions, until one really stumped me. In reporting on my job status, it asked whether or not my job position has been terminated or will be terminated in the future. Since technically I am an intern for Public Allies NM, and that internship ends in July of 2014, I went ahead and typed in the end date of this job. However, the website came back to me with an error stating that I entered a future date into the field, which it had stated was an option to type in originally. I went ahead and left that portion blank and continued on.

The most complicated the application ever seemed to get was having to access my bank account information, which simply required me to open a new browser and go to my online banking site.

You do have to be careful though with time when filling out the application. It likes to boot you off about every 7-10 minutes if it feels you have been inactive. It saves all of the information you provided before hand though. I think overall it took about 25 minutes to fill out the application.

WATCH OUT FOR SKIPPING STEPS THOUGH! I realized towards the end, "Wow, it couldn't have been THAT simple could it have?" And my speculation was correct. There is a step towards the bottom of the application confirmation page that directs you to the portion of the website where you need to upload your necessary documents. Some of the documents were not personally applicable to me. However, proof of identity, pay stubs, rental agreement, utility bill, bank statements, those sorts of documents are needed for the case worker working on your application to properly identify your elligibility.

All in all, it was a down right easy process and I plan on sharing my enrollment experience with others to let everyone know the website is very easy to navigate and the process is only about a 45 minute ordeal. It takes me longer to grocery shop.