(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Most Montanans who lost Medicaid coverage in April failed to provide needed information, state says – Daily Montanan [1] ['Blair Miller', 'More From Author', '- June'] Date: 2023-06-21 More than 15,000 Montanans – about half the people whose eligibility for Medicaid coverage was reviewed in April – will lose that coverage possibly as early as June 1, according to data released Tuesday by the state from the first month of the reviews. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of those 15,471 people will have their coverage discontinued because they “failed to provide requested information” to the state in its Medicaid redetermination process – the first time the state has reconsidered eligibility for the program in three years due to the unwinding of the federal pandemic emergency declaration this spring. However, the Department of Public Health and Human Resources said it expects more people to fall off the rolls in the first months of review because of the way it is prioritizing reviews, and for the declines to taper off in subsequent months. Democrats have argued lost coverage will mean hardship for lower income Montanans, but Republicans during the legislative session balked at the cost, including administrative dollars. Out of 31,596 Montanans who had their eligibility reviewed in April, 9,112 of them (28.8%) had their eligibility renewed. Another 7,0013 (22.2%) are still waiting this month to see if they will remain eligible for coverage, according to the Department’s Montana Medicaid Redetermination dashboard. So far for people being evaluated in May, 8,389 (20.8%) people have had their eligibility renewed; another 14,132 people have started the redetermination process; and another 17,813 cases are pending for a total of 40,334 people. The state’s dashboard estimates at least 25,000 Montanans will go through the process each month until September, when the number of people whose eligibility will need to be evaluated is expected to drop to about half the numbers for this spring and summer. All evaluations are expected to be completed by the end of next February, as each month’s redetermination cycle lasts 60 days. According to KFF Health News, around 1.34 million people enrolled in Medicaid in 22 states have been disenrolled so far – with 71% of them being disenrolled over procedural reasons, in line with Montana’s rate so far. But KFF also said there was wide variation among states when it comes to procedural disenrollments, including 89% of people disenrolled in Kansas but 28% in Iowa. From March 2020 through March of this year, a federal continuous enrollment provision has stopped people from being disenrolled from Medicaid. The 2021 Montana Legislature passed a budget signed into law that stopped continuous enrollment when the federal provisions expired, arguing that they wanted to save money by being sure only people who are still eligible for Medicaid should have coverage despite arguments from Democrats that it would throw the health insurance process for lower income Montanans into chaos. DPHHS spokesperson Jon Ebelt said the department has been prioritizing people for redeterminations who may have had adjusted gross income changes or other things happen during the pandemic that would have made them ineligible for Medicaid coverage if they would have had to re-enroll every year. He said that people who were sent redetermination packets were sent follow-up reminders and text messages to fill out the packets, and that since the department was prioritizing the people most likely to lose eligibility in the initial redetermination rounds, it believes some of those people knew they would lose coverage and did not fill out the packet. “When people are aware that they no longer meet eligibility criteria, they would not necessarily make the effort to complete and return paperwork,” Ebelt said in a written statement. Ebelt said redeterminations for the population that includes older Montanans and those who are blind and have other disabilities will start in July. “DPHHS expects these initial months to have a higher closure rate as a result of this population-based approach,” he said. The department is working with an outside group for the first few months to work with people covered by Medicaid whose status is up for redetermination. Ebelt said the department had sent 100,000 text messages to people currently covered who might have changed their address over the past three years and said less than 3% of closed cases were because of unreturned mail or the department’s inability to locate that person. In late March, when the department sent out a news release about the redeterminations starting in April, it told Medicaid recipients – there were 324,125 enrolled in March in Montana compared to 281,354 in March 2021 – that they should update their contact information, check their mail for letters about their coverage, and complete and return the paperwork. People receiving Medicaid could also use an online portal to see when their coverage would be up for redetermination. DPHHS Director Charlie Brereton said at the time it was “imperative” that Montanans do so in order to keep their coverage, and the department said people who lose Medicaid coverage could pursue coverage through the federal Health Insurance Marketplace. The department also pushed people toward its partner, Cover Montana, which helps people enroll in Medicaid and keep their coverage or to buy new insurance through the federal marketplace. Cover Montana director of special populations Olivia Riutta said in late May the organization was seeing increased volume of calls about renewals and help. Rep. SJ Howell, D-Missoula, sponsored a bill this session that would have allowed Montanans to stay with continuous Medicaid eligibility, arguing it would save both Montanans and the state money in the long run and provide for more medical certainty for lower income Montanans, but the bill died in a 37-63 vote on the House floor on March 2 after concerns from Republicans about a fiscal analysis and the cost of DPHHS keeping on employees to perform the work. Last week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent governors letters urging their states to adopt options to ensure that people do not lose coverage only because of “administrative processes.” Among the options were to spread renewals out over a full year, renewing people’s eligibility based on their eligibility for other federal programs like SNAP and TANF, and working with the U.S. Postal Service to get people’s most up-to-date contact information. He said he was particularly concerned about children that might lose coverage because of a lack of understanding of the process on their parents’ behalf. The disenrollment data do not break down which people covered lost coverage, but March data showed that around 110,000 Montana children were covered under the program – a little more than one-third of the full population. Another third of the population is comprised of adults covered under Medicaid expansion. Ebelt said the state and Cover Montana work with people who lose eligibility to buy insurance through the federal marketplace and said that people can still re-apply for Medicaid coverage any time and appeal their coverage cancellation if they believe it was done incorrectly. “Processing redeterminations expediently is in the best interest of Medicaid members and Montana citizens,” Ebelt said. “DPHHS is committed to assessing the eligibility of each member timely and appropriately throughout the 10-month redetermination period.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/06/21/most-montanans-who-lost-medicaid-coverage-in-april-failed-to-provide-needed-information-state-says/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/