A bill introduced into the House of Representatives last week seeks to address staffing shortages within state Medicaid agencies, while ensuring beneficiaries aren’t stricken from coverage due to procedural reasons or staffing issues. This development comes in response to the beginning of the rollback of the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision on April 1st. Medcity News reported.
This provision banned states from cutting Medicaid beneficiaries during the Covid-19 public health emergency while providing states with increased federal funding. As a result, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) grew to nearly 95 million beneficiaries by the end of March. However, as the unwinding continues, Medicaid enrollees would have to revert to the usual Medicaid redetermination process, where the states verify if enrollees still qualify for coverage.
Representative Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-Georgia) and Representative Neal Dunn (R-Florida) introduced the Medicaid Staffing Flexibility and Protection Act, which would permit state Medicaid agencies to employ outside contractors in helping with Medicaid redeterminations. This move acknowledges that many agencies lack the workforce to manage the return to the redetermination process.
“As states strive to protect taxpayer funds and uphold the integrity of their Medicaid programs, it’s crucial they have the necessary options to efficiently carry out the redetermination process,” said Dunn in a news release while discussing the Medicaid Staffing Flexibility and Protection Act. He emphasized that this Act would afford states the freedom to subcontract certain services related to the crucial redetermination process to private partners, should they choose to do so.
Data from 44 states and the District of Columbia reveal that as of Monday, close to 4.6 million people have been disenrolled from Medicaid coverage, according to the KFF. Disenrollment rates vary greatly by state, with Texas experiencing 72% of total completed renewals to Wyoming’s 8%.
The majority of the disenrolled (about 75%) were cut because of procedural reasons, such as outdated contact information on record or failure to complete renewal packets by a specified deadline, KFF noted. Ironically, many individuals disenrolled due to procedural glitches are likely still eligible for Medicaid. Thus, procedural disenrollment rates also vary greatly by state, ranging from 97% of total disenrollments in New Mexico to a mere 17% in Michigan.
A recent survey found that more than a third of Medicaid beneficiaries reported that their health plan hadn’t contacted them about renewing coverage. It is hoped that the newly-introduced bill could offer the necessary flexibility for states to address these staffing issues, reducing the number of avoidable disenrollments.