By Rachel Silberstein | Times Union, Albany
Albany, N.Y. — Despite efforts by the state Department of Health to inform the public that the pandemic-related pause in Medicaid eligibility checks is over, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have been dropped from public health plans for failing to complete re-enrollment paperwork.
Close to 800,000 New Yorkers — about 30 percent of those recently up for renewal — have been unenrolled from a Medicaid plan in a span of four months, with nearly half of those losing access to the program dropped for a paperwork issue rather than eligibility reasons, the newest state figures show.
Some 1.7 million enrollees of Medicaid, Child Health Plus and the state’s Essential Plan have renewed their coverage since July while 784,798 enrollees have been disenrolled, according to monthly data compiled by the health policy nonprofit KFF.
While 399,834 were deemed ineligible based on income — though these enrollees may be assigned to another state-run health plan — another 384,964 were disenrolled for paperwork reasons.
The disenrollments began in July and are expected to last 14 months. Data analysts said it’s too soon to know whether disenrollment rates will continue at the current pace.
“There is still a lot of uncertainty and a lot that states and the federal government can do to change course,” KFF senior policy analyst Bradley Corallo said. “There could also be differences in the populations undergoing renewals in the coming months who are more or less likely to lose coverage.”
States were required to pause Medicaid eligibility checks during the COVID-19 pandemic, which put many out of work. During that time, Medicaid enrollment soared to record levels and the state’s uninsured rates plummeted.
The automatic renewals stopped April 1 as the federal public health emergency ended and the economy rebounded. The state Department of Health is now faced with the monumental task of ensuring 9 million New Yorkers with…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply