In March 2023, the Maryland Department of Health began screening approximately 1.8 million Medicaid enrollees to see who is eligible for the federal health insurance program for low-income families.
A year later, the department has processed more than 1.5 million Medicaid enrollees and determined that while most are still eligible, hundreds of thousands of others are no longer eligible.
Before the pandemic, people with Medicaid insurance had to reapply every year. Medicaid cut-offs were suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic to ensure people are covered during the global health crisis.
However, beginning in 2023, Medicaid re-enrollment will no longer be automatic, and individuals would have to re-enroll in the program to continue their coverage during a period often referred to as “Medicaid unwind.”
Since then, well over 300,000 people have lost Medicaid coverage, according to data updated monthly by the Department of Health. And Maryland still has one month left in its Medicaid relaxation period.
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This week, the department released updated data with redetermination information for March.
At the start of the mitigation period, approximately 1,787,000 people were enrolled in Medicaid in March 2023, according to the data. One year later, the number of people covered by the program was 1,690,000.
There are many reasons for termination. Some people who were eligible for Medicaid at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic now earn too much to qualify for the low-income program. Some people are no longer eligible for Medicaid coverage because they have moved up in age to enroll in Medicare, the federal health insurance program for retirees.
But most terminations are due to so-called “procedural terminations,” meaning someone did not start or complete a reapply for Medicaid.
A person who has been disenrolled for “procedural” reasons may still be eligible for Medicaid, but state officials cannot verify eligibility unless they complete a reapply to the program, and the individual's insurance The application will be discontinued.
Starting in March 2023, 59% to 88% of monthly terminations will be for procedural reasons and not necessarily because an individual is no longer eligible for the program.
People who receive procedural termination have a short period of time after losing coverage before they can reapply for Medicaid and receive coverage again if they are still eligible.
To deal with the huge number of Medicaid recipients, the state health department decided to divide its initial enrollment of 1.8 million into 12-month cohorts. Each Medicaid redetermination cohort has a two-month deadline from the time they receive notification of their status from the Maryland Department of Health to complete the reapplication process.
There were 101,765 Medicaid beneficiaries scheduled for redetermination in the March cohort. This means those who received a mail or online notice from the department in February to reapply for Medicaid coverage were warned that their coverage would end on March 31, according to the department.
Of these enrollees, 73,350 maintained health insurance coverage under Medicaid, while 22,220 disenrolled. At the time the report was released, he had an additional 6,195 registrants under review.
Of the 22,220 people who were disenrolled from Medicaid at the end of March, only 4,672 lost coverage because they were no longer eligible for the program due to age, income or other reasons.
There were 17,548 people whose registrations were canceled due to procedural termination, meaning they did not complete or initiate the re-application process within the two-month period.
A year after Maryland resumed Medicaid cutoffs, hurdles have occurred in the process of evaluating eligibility for 1.8 million Medicaid recipients.
This includes restoring coverage to thousands of children after wrongful terminations, backing up phone lines that have slowed customer service assistance, and forcing many states to wrongfully cut off Medicaid for people who are still eligible. This includes a three-month suspension of layoff procedures nationwide after federal authorities found out.
According to the department's schedule, there will be another final round of Medicaid disenrollment for people whose coverage ends in April. These people were notified in February of the need to reapply. The latest data is expected to be published in May.
