Arkansas lawmakers OK contract for center to field questions on Medicaid, other services

Lawmakers on Friday approved a three-year, $48 million contract with the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care to set up a customer service center that will field questions about Medicaid, nutrition assistance and other programs.

The center will answer Arkansans’ questions by phone and online, first about the state’s Medicaid expansion program before adding more Department of Human Services programs each month, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, said Melissa Weatherton, the agency’s director of Specialty Medicaid Services.

Cuts to Medicaid and food stamps will start to go into effect Jan. 1, in accordance with a sweeping 2025 federal budget law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Earlier this month, Weatherton called the customer service center a “one-stop shop” that will ease Arkansans’ frustrations and employees’ workloads.

The agency has been seeking a vendor for the center for about three years, Weatherton told the Review subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council on Monday.

“We receive a very high volume of calls and complaints, as you can imagine,” she said. “We’re operating multiple phone numbers, multiple mailboxes across our county offices, getting calls at each one of our divisions. We do not have a coordinated system in place to be able to take those calls, track those calls, and give accurate, quick information across multiple programs.”

The full Legislative Council approved the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care contract with no debate or dissent Friday.

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Weatherton said the customer service center will not be equipped to answer questions about the Division of Children and Family Services until its fourth year if the contract is renewed.

The future of Arkansas Medicaid is expected to be one of lawmakers’ highest priorities in the 2027 legislative session after the Trump administration denied a five-year extension of the program in July. The state requested a two-year reprieve in August to keep Medicaid recipients covered while officials come up with a new model.

The Department of Human Services has not yet received a formal notification of the denial, nor has it received a response to the agency’s request for the two-year grace period, agency spokesperson Gavin Lesnick said Friday.