The state of Michigan has extended the deadline for Medicaid beneficiaries who were required to re-enroll in June. That’s after new guidance from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services allowed the state to extend the deadline.
Throughout the pandemic, Medicaid enrollees could maintain their coverage without reapplying.
Now that the public health emergency has been ended, states have to determine who is still eligible for Medicaid coverage.
Those whose coverage would have ended on June 30 now have until the end of July to return their enrollment paperwork to the state.
Currently, state health officials say they're only offering the extension for those required to enroll in June.
Meghan Groen is the senior deputy director for the Behavioral and Physical Health and Aging Services Administration with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
She said extending the deadline gives the state more time to contact people with outdated income information.
“There's frequently some additional information that we need to do in terms of verifying that household and that income. So, you know, that is really what we've been working on with individuals just to make sure that we have all that information correctly as they're filling out their paperwork,” Groen said.
Groen said the state is sending renewal packets through the mail to those whose eligibility needs to be redetermined, and contacting people through email and over the phone.
Dominick Pallone is the executive director of the Michigan Association of Health Plans.
He said ensuring that the state has updated contact information is the best way Medicaid recipients can ensure they don’t risk losing coverage.
“The best thing that they can do to make sure this process moves smoothly, and that they can avoid disruptions in health care coverage is to make sure they're updating their contact information,” Pallone said.
Pallone said about one-third of Medicaid recipients will be able to passively re-enroll. The state is working to contact those that need further income or household verification. Before the deadline was extended, more than 200,000 Michiganders had until June 30 to re-enroll or risk losing coverage.
“Folks that we believe should maintain eligibility but maybe failed to fill out the paperwork or failed to be contacted," Pallone said. "That's where a lot of our concern is right now and we really want to limit the number of terminations for procedural reasons.”
The state also offers a helpline for those with questions about their renewal packet. The call center is open Monday through Friday from 8 A.M. to 7 P.M. The phone number for the call center is (833) 599-6444.
