MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Years after the COVID-19 pandemic, health departments are beginning to renew coverage eligibility. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has started to review medicaid eligibility for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. What started in June of this year, all Michigan Medicaid beneficiaries have to go through a renewal process that might negatively impact healthcare coverage.
“During the pandemic, congress actually paused all Medicaid renewals and so everyone got to maintain their coverage during the pandemic and then last year Congress changed those rules and so for 3 plus years beneficiaries didn’t have to do anything to maintain their medicaid coverage,” commneted MDHHS Senior Advisor Nicole Hudson. Last December, congress passed its spending bill which stopped the medicaid continuous coverage during COVID.
“And really what that did was it decoupled the continuous coerage requirment in medicaid, that told states that we had to start doing these medicaid renewals again,” continued Hudson.
Federal medicaid services have also allowed states to provide flexibility options for beneficiaries. They have paused procedural coverage closures for a month and are giving beneficiaries 90 days after their case has been closed to turn in eligibility paperwork and be reinstated.
“If you forget to turn in your paper work back in and your medicaid is closed you still have that paper work maybe sitting on your kitchen counter you can actually fill it in and send it back in and as long your still eligible we’ll reinstate your medicaid back to the date that you were closed,” commented Hudson.
Those who haven’t had any large change in their income levels will receive a packet in the mail asking to send in updated pay stubs, bank information and other resources that can help verify your eligibility.
Click here to see the full list of flexible strategies released by the federal government to help lesson the impact of medicaid renewals.
