Alternative Headline: Arkansas DHS Leadership Shifts
[MM Curator Summary]: Arkansas DHS Secretary Kristi Putnam will resign in July, with Medicaid chief Janet Mann set to take over as major Medicaid developments take place, including proposed work requirements and the end of Medicaid managed care for dental services.
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Kristi Putnam, secretary of the state Department of Human Services, will depart late next month to return to Kentucky after 2½ years at the helm of the department, and Janet Mann, the department’s deputy secretary of programs and state Medicaid director, will become the department’s secretary upon Putnam’s departure, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Wednesday.
Putnam will depart as the department’s secretary on July 25 and Mann will then become secretary, the Republican governor said.
Putnam said in the governor office’s news release that "My whole career has focused on serving families, and this move back to Kentucky is so I can serve my own family in a bigger way.
"Janet is the absolute right person to step up as Secretary, is one of the most creative policy experts I have ever known, and will take DHS to new levels of success," she said.
Putnam said serving in Sanders’ administration has been the honor of a lifetime for her, and she is grateful and proud of "team DHS and all we have accomplished so far under this Governor’s bold leadership."
The state’s Medicaid program covers 869,833 people, including 415,672 children, 230,050 adults through the expansion program called ARHOME, and 224,111 other adults as of April 1, according to the department’s website ARHOME stands for Arkansas Health and Opportunity for Me.
The department’s current budget is $9.68 billion, of which $7.06 billion is federal funds in fiscal 2025 that ends June 30, said department spokesman Keith Metz.
Putnam’s salary is $236,385.14 a year, according to Arkansas’ Transparency website.
Mann’s salary is $191,598.58 a year in her current post and her new salary as the department’s secretary will be set a later date, said Sanders’ spokesman Sam Dubke.
Sanders said in the governor’s office news release that "Over the past two-and-a-half years, Kristi has overhauled DHS and brought much-needed reforms to the programs her agency oversees, including foster care, Medicaid, maternal health, food stamps, and more.
"My administration was extraordinarily lucky to have someone with her skill set and leadership in charge of one of the most critical agencies in state government," she said. "I am grateful that we have someone as qualified as Janet to take over for Kristi and seamlessly continue to make positive changes at DHS. Janet has an encyclopedic knowledge of her agency and I know she is the exact right person to lead DHS into the future."
Mann said she is honored by the governor’s decision to select her for this role and is excited to continue the great work that she and Putnam have been able to accomplish in this administration.
"We have made enormous progress in providing support to Arkansans who need it and also in working with other agencies for all Arkansans who want a path to economic independence," she said. "Under Governor Sanders’ leadership, DHS will continue to deliver for the people of Arkansas."
Mann has more than 20 years of experience in health care and health care finance in state government and the corporate sector, according to the governor’s office. This includes several roles at Arkansas DHS as chief financial officer and director of Division of Medical Services as well as the deputy administrator for the Mississippi Medicaid program.
In addition, she has worked in the private sector consulting with multiple states’ Medicaid agencies on finance, reporting, managed care, program integrity, organizational assessments and eligibility, according to the governor’s office. Mann holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Alabama and is a certified public accountant.
In March of this year, Arkansas sent the federal government its request to add a work requirement to the state’s Medicaid expansion program.
If approved by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the requirement would be added through a "Pathway to Prosperity" amendment to the federal waiver authorizing the Medicaid expansion program, ARHOME.
ARHOME participants ages 19 to 64 would have to be working, enrolled in school, volunteering or caring for a dependent child, an elderly parent or a person with a disability to be considered "on track" with the requirement. The department would work with those Medicaid recipients and their health plans, including by the establishment and monitoring of a "personal development plan," the proposal states.
That plan would include "success coaching" through agencies such as the state Division of Workforce Services, the Division of Career and Technical Education and local community partners, Mann said earlier this year.
Those who "refuse to cooperate" will have their ARHOME coverage suspended, but it can be restored if the recipient "chooses to get ‘on track’" with the personal development plan, the department said.
In June of 2024, DHS announced it would end its Medicaid managed care dental program and return beneficiaries who qualify for dental coverage to the Medicaid fee-for-service program starting in November 2024.
The announcement came more than a month after department officials decided to pull down the department’s procurement for Arkansas Medicaid dental managed care services and review options to either rebid the procurement or to move beneficiaries back to fee-for-service.
Department officials decided to pull down the procurement in late April 2024, after some state lawmakers questioned whether department officials followed their request for proposals for Medicaid dental managed care services, although the state’s procurement director in January 2024 rejected a protest filed by Delta Dental of Arkansas that the department failed to adhere to the procurement rules set forth in the request for proposals. The dental managed care program within Arkansas Medicaid has been in effect since Jan. 1, 2018.
During a six-month period in 2023, Arkansas’ total Medicaid enrollment declined by about 257,000 as the department said it successfully completed eligibility redeterminations on Medicaid beneficiaries whose coverage was extended because of special rules that have been in effect during the federal government’s covid-19 public health emergency.
The continuous enrollment requirement during the federal public health emergency prevented DHS from removing most ineligible individuals from Medicaid, but normal eligibility rules resumed April 1, 2023, the department said.
On Oct. 1, 2023, Medicaid’s total enrollment was 868,059, DHS spokesman Gavin Lesnick said in October 2023. That included 388,117 children, 240,519 adults in ARHOME, and 239,423 other adults, he said.
In contrast, the department reported total enrollment of 1,125,871 on April 1, 2023, when normal Medicaid eligibility rules resumed. At that point, the department said 469,142 children were Medicaid beneficiaries, 334,866 adult beneficiaries were on ARHOME, and 321,863 other adults were Medicaid beneficiaries.
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/jun/11/state-department-of-human-services-chief-leaving/
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