What Now? The Emergency Declaration is Over and Medicaid Patients Will Need to Requalify for Coverage

May 26, 2023

When the pandemic emergency declaration began in March 2020, Congress provided increased Medicaid funding to states via the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Under the FFCRA, states had to provide “continuous coverage” to patients to keep receiving federal funds during the pandemic. During this continuous coverage requirement, states could not disenroll anyone unless the patient requested to be disenrolled or if the patient passed away.

Fast forward to today, Congress officially ended the continuous coverage requirement and states are now allowed to resume Medicaid coverage disenrollment as of April 1. (Each state has different timelines and processes for how and when they disenroll.)

We’re here to help you understand if you are at risk of losing coverage and when to prioritize re-enrolling in Medicaid. Here’s what you need to know.

• An estimated 5 million to 14 million people will lose coverage during the unwinding process and children will be among the people most at risk of losing coverage.
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have given states 12 months to initiate the renewals and 14 months to fully complete all renewals. This will be a daunting task, particularly for California, which has more than 15 million Medi-Cal enrollees, the largest enrollment of any state Medicaid program.
• Five states (AR, AZ, ID, NH, SD) started disenrolling people from Medicaid on April 1.
• Be on the lookout for coverage updates via email. You may be contacted if these changes will have an impact on your coverage.
  • According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, 33 states are compiling lists of members who have not submitted renewal forms or who are currently in the renewal process to the Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs). And nearly 6 in 10 assister programs for each state reported they proactively reached out to their state to support their efforts in contacting enrollees – like sharing contact information and reconnecting enrollees with Medicaid.

Don’t wait to be contacted, or until it’s too late to find out if you’re at risk of being disenrolled from Medicaid. Contact your state’s Medicaid department today to find out or reach out to us at info@mypatientrights.org for questions or assistance.