With more than five million people already dropped from state Medicaid rolls and the federal government telling them they are not doing a good job, some states are introducing changes in how they review the eligibility of their Medicaid population as part of the Medicaid unwinding process.
With the end of the formal public health emergency and continuous Medicaid eligibility, states have begun the significant challenge of reviewing the eligibility of all of their Medicaid participants. Last month the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent letters to all 50 states outlining their individual shortcomings in their efforts so far.
In part as a response to those criticisms, states have introduced a number of measures designed to improve their review of Medicaid eligibility, including greater use of text messages to contact current participants, longer deadlines for submitting documentation, automatic renewals, and more. These and other changes seek to address the startling revelation that nearly 75 percent of the people dropped from the Medicaid rolls so far had their Medicaid participation terminated not because they were found ineligible but because of procedural problems, such as paperwork issues.
Learn more about how states are responding to the criticisms levied against them by federal officials from the Washington Post article “Some states tweak their Medicaid programs amid the unwinding process.”