X

Unwinding Continuous Coverage

  • What Do the Data Tell Us about the Unwinding of the Medicaid Continuous Enrollment Requirement?

    When watching a baseball game, we rely on the scoreboard to keep track of the score, strikes, balls, outs, etc.  But unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple when it comes to keeping up with the Medicaid continuous coverage winddown. So far, we have very little data available to monitor the unwinding. CCF is posting state…

  • What Happens when the Medicaid “Unwinding” Meets a Natural Disaster?

    It turns out that you can’t schedule natural disasters.  They happen and they don’t particularly care when.  Most recent case in point:  Two weeks ago, tornados devastated three counties in Arkansas and six counties in Mississippi, resulting in approval of federal disaster assistance by President Biden and, in the  case of Mississippi, a Public Health…

  • First Round of Medicaid Disenrollment Data Is In Quickly: What We Know and Don’t Know

    Five states (AR, AZ, ID, NH, SD) started disenrolling people from Medicaid last weekend (April 1st) as the unprecedented Medicaid “unwinding” begins. As readers of SayAhh! know, in exchange for extra federal funds, states have been prohibited from disenrolling anyone involuntarily from Medicaid since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Quicker than…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #27: States Should Figure Out a Way to Share Renewal Month with Enrollees, Assisters, and Health Care Providers

    In mid-2022, only a little more than a third of enrollees had awareness of the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous enrollment requirement based on analysis conducted by the Urban Institute. As awareness of the resumption of Medicaid renewals and disenrollments is increasing, some enrollees are getting anxious. And the best way to help quell their…

  • Tips and Best Practices for Unwinding the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Protection

    Unwinding the Medicaid continuous coverage protection will be a heavy lift. It will be important for states to work together with community partners in the planning process. Our new and improved Tips and Best Practices outline specific action steps states can take now to be better prepared for the end of the public health emergency…

  • Medicaid Unwinding Federal Reporting, Strategies/Policies, and Data by State

    The analysis on this page is part of a larger suite of Medicaid unwinding data. Please visit our “Unwinding the PHE” landing page to view more. This tracker examines whether the following information can be found on the state Medicaid or state Marketplace website or in public documents: 1) the state’s unwinding plan or a…

  • Unwinding Resources

    A variety of resources, including template communications materials and toolkits, are available to assist states and stakeholders in planning and preparing for the end of the PHE as we get closer to the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous coverage protection. Tips for Interpreting Unwinding Data The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 requires CMS to publicly post certain unwinding data for all…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #26: As the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Protection Ends This Week, It’s Important to Understand Procedural Disenrollments and Why They Occur

    Friday, March 31, 2023, will be the last day that Medicaid enrollees are protected from a loss of Medicaid coverage. As of April 1st, people will begin to lose their coverage if they are determined ineligible and many of those will encounter barriers in transitioning to other coverage. These include affordability, limited special enrollment periods…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #25: Renewal Reports Provide Important Insights to States’ Unwinding Plans

    Next week, the continuous enrollment will expire and as a result, some families may lose coverage as soon as April 1. As states undergo final preparations for the unwinding to officially begin, state renewal reports are an important resource for stakeholders to prepare and help monitor the unwinding process. We covered the basics of the…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #24: State-Specific Flyers Available Now to Inform Medicaid Enrollees About Upcoming Renewals

    As my colleague Tricia Brooks wrote last week, the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous coverage provision is now underway in almost half of the states and in a handful of states, terminations for procedural reasons will begin next month. It is more important than ever to inform Medicaid enrollees about the changes that are coming…

  • If You Care About Children’s Mental Health, Here’s Why You Need to Care About Medicaid Unwinding

    The pandemic has shed new light on children’s mental health across the nation. While the evidence is clear that even before the COVID pandemic there was a crisis in children’s mental health, the pandemic has further intensified the crisis, as highlighted by national pediatric provider groups in their declaration of a national emergency in child…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #23: CMS Releases Anticipated 2023 State Level Timelines

    Kudos to CMS for prompt posting of key dates that states are initiating action as we approach the end of Medicaid continuous eligibility on March 31, 2023. Keep in mind that these dates are “anticipated,” and the document bears a specific date; as such, the list will likely be updated if timelines shift. So, what…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #22: Updates to 50-State Tracker with One Month Until Unwinding Start Date

    We are officially in final unwinding countdown with exactly one month until states are allowed to begin Medicaid terminations. In preparation, we have been updating our 50-state tracker with new information including revised state unwinding plans and state renewal reports that were submitted to CMS. Since the 50-state tracker first went live in September 2022,…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #21: FCC Gives Green Light for MCOs and Other State Medicaid Contractors to Use Text Messaging

    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has encouraged states to communicate with enrollees through non-mail means, and text messages and automated calls are an efficient and cost-effective way to contact consumers. But there were concerns about compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which was enacted to protect consumers from certain practices that…

  • CCF, Pediatricians Urge State Leaders to Shield Children from Losing Medicaid Coverage

    State-by-State Report Shows Medicaid Now Covers More Than Half of U.S. Children This week we teamed up with our colleagues at the American Academy of Pediatrics to release a report and discuss the high stakes for children when the Medicaid continuous coverage protection expires. Medicaid and CHIP now cover 54% of children in the United…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #20: All States Must Submit Their Medicaid Continuous Coverage Unwinding Renewal Reports by Today!

      Today’s the day! All states are required to submit their state renewal reports to CMS today. States that initiated their first batch of renewals in February were expected to submit their reports on February 1. And all other states are required to submit the reports today. What are the state renewal reports? To better…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #19: What Can Application Processing Times Tell Us About State Readiness for the Unwinding?

          In the past, I’ve blogged a lot about the Medicaid and CHIP performance indicators that states have been required to report since 2014. Among those indicators, states must report the share of MAGI-based (i.e., non-disabled, non-elderly Medicaid groups) applications completed in five buckets: less than 24 hours (also known as real-time determination),…

  • CMS Announces Important Consumer Protection for People Losing Medicaid/CHIP

    States will begin the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility for over 80 million people across the country very soon, and some states may be starting the process today. People will not lose Medicaid coverage until April 1 at the earliest, but once disenrollments begin, the number of people losing Medicaid coverage could skyrocket overnight. Some…

  • Unwinding Wednesday #18: What Does the End of COVID Emergency Declarations Mean for Medicaid/CHIP?

            On Monday, the Biden Administration announced that it would end the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency declarations effective May 11th. Some folks may have stopped paying attention or holding their breath in anticipation of the announcement of the end of the PHE once the Medicaid continuous enrollment protection was…

  • Child Uninsured Rate Could Rise Sharply if States Don’t Proceed with Caution

    Policy Landscape Medicaid is the backbone of the nation’s health care system providing coverage to those for whom private insurance is not available or affordable and is now the primary coverage source (along with CHIP) for America’s children. Medicaid covers approximately 83.5 million people (including more than 34.2 million children) — a 31 percent increase…