JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — About 500,000 people who recently lost Medicaid coverage are regaining their health insurance while states scramble fix computer systems that didn’t properly evaluate people’s eligibility after the end of the coronavirus pandemic, federal officials said Thursday.
The computer issues affected people in 29 states and the District of Columbia and likely included a significant number of children who should have been eligible for Medicaid at higher income levels even if their parents or caregivers were not, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
All states are undertaking a massive review of their Medicaid rolls after a three-year, pandemic-era prohibition on ending coverage expired this spring. While the freeze was in effect, Medicaid enrollment swelled by nearly one-third, from 71 million people in February 2020 to 94 million in April 2023.
States often use computer programs as a first step in determining whether people should be automatically re-enrolled in Medicaid. If their eligibility is unclear, states then attempt to contact people by mail, phone, text or email seeking additional information. If that doesn’t work, people are dropped from the rolls in what CMS describes as a “procedural termination.”
In late August, CMS warned that some state computer systems were flagging entire households for further information — and dropping all family members when no one responded — instead of reviewing each individual separately and automatically renewing children who remain eligible. It sent letters to all states asking them to verify their compliance with federal rules.