HHS Urges States to Avoid Unnecessary Coverage Loss, Threatens Enforcement

Jun 15
Jun 15, 2023

Starting April 1, states were once again allowed to start disenrolling people from Medicaid who no longer qualify. But after early indications that people getting kicked off the roles for procedural reasons, the federal government this week offered a stern warning to states that may have been too quick to begin disenrollments.

Eligibility redeterminations were suspended during the COVID-19 public health emergency as a condition of states receiving higher federal funding. In that time, more than 20 million people joined Medicaid rolls nationwide, with enrollment soaring to 95.9 million lives as of May 2023, according to the latest update to AIS’s Directory of Health Plans (DHP). With millions of people standing to lose coverage, many in the health care industry feared lack of beneficiary knowledge about the renewal process could cause mass procedural disenrollments among those who are still eligible for coverage.
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Lauren Flynn Kelly

Lauren has been covering health business issues since the early 2000s and specializes in in-depth reporting on Medicare Advantage, managed Medicaid and Medicare Part D. She also possesses a deep understanding of the complex world of pharmacy benefit management, having written AIS Health’s Radar on Drug Benefits from 2004 to 2005 and again from 2011 to 2016. In addition to her role as managing editor of Radar on Medicare Advantage, she oversees AIS Health’s publications and manages the health editorial staff. She graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in English.

Carina Belles

Carina has been covering public-sector health care since 2018. As a data reporter for Radar on Medicare Advantage, she creates infographics and data stories on issues impacting Medicare, Medicaid and Part D. She also develops AIS Health Daily, a free daily newsletter that showcases AIS’s strong reporting across our four publications and parent company Norstella’s suite of market access and data solutions. Prior to joining the editorial team, she managed Medicare and Medicaid data for the Directory of Health Plans, AIS’s industry-standard health coverage database. She graduated from Ohio University with a B.S. in Journalism.