After three years without Medicaid redeterminations due to Covid-19, as many as 18 million people could lose Medicaid coverage when redeterminations resume April 1. Medicaid redetermination is the process states use to determine if enrollees are still eligible for Medicaid.
This group of people will either have to renew coverage or transition to a different form of insurance. A new coalition, launched last week, is working to ensure the process goes smoothly for them.
The Connecting to Coverage Coalition is led by AHIP, and includes Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Medicaid Health Plans of America, American Benefits Council and other organizations. The coalition’s website is providing information on redeterminations for Medicaid enrollees, healthcare navigators, healthcare leaders, community leaders and others. This includes studies about the redetermination process, frequently asked questions for enrollees, links to guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and toolkits for engaging with enrollees.
“We thought it was really critical to bring together organizations across the healthcare system to really work on how we’re going to connect people to coverage and make sure that they have information about the Medicaid redetermination process, as well as if they’re no longer eligible for Medicaid, how to transition to other coverage,” said Jeanette Thornton, executive vice president of policy and strategy at AHIP.
In conjunction with the Coalition news, AHIP also released the Medicaid Redetermination Coverage Transitions Report, which was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. The report provides a state-by-state analysis of how many people will become uninsured or will transition to other forms of coverage.
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The report discovered that in almost every state, most people will move to employer-sponsored insurance. Nationwide, 53.6% of the nearly 18 million people who could lose coverage will turn to employer-sponsored insurance. Georgia has the lowest proportion of people who will transition to employer-sponsored coverage, at 48.9%. Delaware, meanwhile, has the highest proportion, at 57.1%.
“One of the humanizing results of this data analysis is just understanding how many of these people who are going to be subjected to this process are going to find themselves eligible for employer-sponsored insurance.… It’s understanding and seeking to operationalize all that must happen for an HR administrator to understand that they have employees who might be eligible, activating that special enrollment period, getting them to fill out the paper. It’s a lot,” said Mairin Mancino, a senior director on the healthcare strategy team at NORC.
Of the 18 million who could lose coverage, 21.2% will become uninsured, the report also found. Massachusetts will have the lowest proportion of those who will become uninsured, at 17.7%, and South Dakota will have the largest proportion, 26.2%.
“Making sure there are operations and supports in place in states to help those people transition to another coverage source is going to be really key,” said Kate Honsberger, senior manager on the healthcare strategy team at NORC.
Research shows that outreach efforts will be greatly needed for upcoming Medicaid redeterminations: more than 64% of Americans are unaware about redeterminations resuming, a recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report found. Several health plans are launching campaigns to make Americans aware, including L.A. Care Health Plan and Health Net.
Ultimately, with the new coalition, AHIP hopes to ease the challenges ahead with the pending redetermination process, Thornton said.
“We are dedicated to making sure that this process is as smooth as possible,” Thornton stated. “That’s our goal in doing all of this. This is a lot of people. … It’s going to be important that everybody is working together on this common goal.”
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