What to look out for as Medicaid renewal process continues

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - A statewide medical program is seeing some changes in Arkansas.

Arkansas Medicaid enrollment is up over 23% since March 2020, according to the Arkansas Comprehensive Unwinding Plan.

It’s the highest enrollment ever with over 1 million beneficiaries, but that could change soon with the unwinding plan in progress.

Across the country, about 15 million people will be disenrolled when the Medicaid continuous enrollment condition ends.

This took effect in 2020 during the COVID-19 Federal Public Health Emergency.

“Nobody was going to be disenrolled from Medicaid,” said Gavin Lesnick, Chief of Communications for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

People enrolled in Medicaid kept their enrollment under continuous conditions until now.

Lesnick said in February, renewal letters started going out to people who needed to renew their Medicaid coverage.

According to the Arkansas Comprehensive Unwinding Plan, over 400,000 Arkansans need to be re-determined for Medicaid eligibility.

“What we at DHS are going to do is redetermine the eligibility of all the Medicaid beneficiaries who had their coverage extended over those three years of the public health emergency,” he said.

The Federal Public Health Emergency ends in May, so for the next six months, letters will be going out to give Arkansas the option to renew if eligible.

“Be disenrolled in their coverage in April. This process will take about 6 months, so starting April 1 we will go through the eligibility of all those Arkansans on Medicaid who’ve had their Medicaid extended through the public health emergency,” Lesnick said.

A picture of the letter to look out for in the mail is here. It will show that it is coming from the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

When you get it, open it up and respond to make sure you are enrolled in healthcare coverage.

Lesnick emphasized that some letters still have not been sent, so if your address information is updated, you have not been missed. It could come within the next six months.

To make sure you get your letter, you can call the hotline at 844-872-2660 or go to the Arkansas Access website.

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