The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has renewed Medicaid or Healthy Michigan plan coverage for more than 1.1 million people, in the six months since Medicaid renewals began again in Michigan after the COVID-19 pandemic, including 140,024 whose eligibility was up for renewal in December.
During the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, Congress enacted the Families First Coronavirus Response Act that required state Medicaid agencies continue health care coverage for all medical assistance programs, even if someone's eligibility changed.
Michigan’s Medicaid caseload grew by more than 700,000 people during the public health emergency.
This requirement was ended by the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 signed Dec. 29, 2022, and renewals began again in June 2023.
Over the past several months MDHHS has deployed a number of strategies released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to help make the process easier for those up for renewal, and to mitigate the number of residents at risk of losing coverage.
These include:
Renewing Medicaid eligibility for people receiving benefits under the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program without conducting separate income determinations.
Permitting managed care plans to provide assistance to enrollees to complete and submit Medicaid renewal forms.
Reinstating individual’s eligibility who were disenrolled for procedural reasons and are subsequently redetermined to be eligible for Medicaid during a 90-day reconsideration period.
Extending renewals to May 2024 for beneficiaries undergoing life-saving treatment, such as dialysis or for cancer.
Extending automatic reenrollment into a Medicaid managed care plan to up to 120 days.
Providing beneficiaries an extra month to submit paperwork to avoid loss of health care coverage.
As a result of some of these strategies passive renewals, or the ability to automatically renew a beneficiary, increased from 12% to 40%.
“Total renewals through the past six months puts Michigan on pace to have a total enrollment similar to pre-pandemic levels in March 2020,” said Meghan Groen, MDHHS Medicaid director. “It remains critical for those who are up for renewal to return their paperwork as quickly as possible to avoid the unnecessary loss of coverage.”
Of those beneficiaries whose Medicaid case was closed for procedural reasons, such as not returning paperwork on time, one in four was due to having other comprehensive health insurance available to them.
MDHHS also announced that the renewal rate for Medicaid beneficiaries whose eligibility was being redetermined for November was just over 65%. The number renewed for November Medicaid redeterminations increased to 152,241 based on updated data from this week.
The latest data on Medicaid renewals can be found on MDHHS’ online dashboard. The dashboard – which is updated monthly – shows that 1,109,849 people have been renewed to date.
The department is awaiting completed enrollment forms from another 97,657people who were up for renewal in December and have until the end of January to return their paperwork.
There were 14,075 people disenrolled in November because they were no longer eligible and 66,477 whose eligibility was not renewed for procedural reasons – such as not providing requested verification documents like driver’s license, pay stubs and bank statements.
MDHHS can reinstate eligibility back to the termination date for those who were disenrolled based on a procedural reason and are subsequently found to still be eligible for Medicaid during a 90-day reconsideration period.
During the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, Congress enacted the Families First Coronavirus Response Act that required state Medicaid agencies continue health care coverage for all medical assistance programs, even if someone's eligibility changed.
Michigan’s Medicaid caseload grew by more than 700,000 people during the public health emergency.
This requirement was ended by the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 signed Dec. 29, 2022, and renewals began again in June 2023.
Over the past several months MDHHS has deployed a number of strategies released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to help make the process easier for those up for renewal, and to mitigate the number of residents at risk of losing coverage.
These include:
Renewing Medicaid eligibility for people receiving benefits under the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program without conducting separate income determinations.
Permitting managed care plans to provide assistance to enrollees to complete and submit Medicaid renewal forms.
Reinstating individual’s eligibility who were disenrolled for procedural reasons and are subsequently redetermined to be eligible for Medicaid during a 90-day reconsideration period.
Extending renewals to May 2024 for beneficiaries undergoing life-saving treatment, such as dialysis or for cancer.
Extending automatic reenrollment into a Medicaid managed care plan to up to 120 days.
Providing beneficiaries an extra month to submit paperwork to avoid loss of health care coverage.
As a result of some of these strategies passive renewals, or the ability to automatically renew a beneficiary, increased from 12% to 40%.
“Total renewals through the past six months puts Michigan on pace to have a total enrollment similar to pre-pandemic levels in March 2020,” said Meghan Groen, MDHHS Medicaid director. “It remains critical for those who are up for renewal to return their paperwork as quickly as possible to avoid the unnecessary loss of coverage.”
Of those beneficiaries whose Medicaid case was closed for procedural reasons, such as not returning paperwork on time, one in four was due to having other comprehensive health insurance available to them.
MDHHS also announced that the renewal rate for Medicaid beneficiaries whose eligibility was being redetermined for November was just over 65%. The number renewed for November Medicaid redeterminations increased to 152,241 based on updated data from this week.
The latest data on Medicaid renewals can be found on MDHHS’ online dashboard. The dashboard – which is updated monthly – shows that 1,109,849 people have been renewed to date.
The department is awaiting completed enrollment forms from another 97,657people who were up for renewal in December and have until the end of January to return their paperwork.
There were 14,075 people disenrolled in November because they were no longer eligible and 66,477 whose eligibility was not renewed for procedural reasons – such as not providing requested verification documents like driver’s license, pay stubs and bank statements.
MDHHS can reinstate eligibility back to the termination date for those who were disenrolled based on a procedural reason and are subsequently found to still be eligible for Medicaid during a 90-day reconsideration period.
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