This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have back.
Diving brief:
- The number of people enrolled in Medicaid has soared during the pandemic due to federal restrictions requiring states to remove insurance program members from the safety net. However, many of these people may not have known their coverage had continued, a new study suggests.
- Medicaid coverage as a percentage of the overall population jumped 5.2 percentage points between 2019 and 2022, according to CMS statistics. However, the change in Medicaid coverage reported by survey was much smaller — an increase of 1.3 percentage points, according to the study published Friday in JAMA.
- The findings suggest that the government needs to do a better job of communicating with Medicaid members about changes to their coverage — an especially important goal as states double-check Medicaid eligibility, the researchers said.
Dive overview:
Medicaid enrollment has soared cover one in four Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, as states agreed not to kick individuals off Medicaid in exchange for more generous federal funding.
However, that agreement ended in April 2023, allowing states to reassess the eligibility of their Medicaid beneficiaries. At least 19.6 million people As a result, they have lost coverage to date, according to a tracker from KFF, a health policy research nonprofit. States are expected to finishing relax by the middle of this year.
Previous research suggests Growth in Medicaid enrollment outpaced survey-reported Medicaid coverage rates in 2021, raising questions about the extent to which beneficiaries understood what was happening with their coverage during the pandemic.
That's a gap that researchers sought to address in the new study, which analyzes differences between self-reported survey data from U.S. residents and CMS administrative data.
The study found that the uninsured rate fell “significantly” from 2019 to 2022, but that decline was four times greater than the growth in Medicaid enrollment. Meanwhile, Medicaid growth based on a survey was lower than growth calculated by the federal government.
The gap between administrative Medicaid coverage and self-reported Medicaid coverage increased from 1.7% of the population in 2019 to 5.6% in 2022. In 2019, 34 states and Washington, D.C. conducted an undercounted survey by Medicaid. In 2022, all 50 states and Washington, D.C., had an undercount, according to the study.
That could be due to confusion among beneficiaries about how to report their coverage, but it's more likely that many people who remained on Medicaid during COVID rolling enrollment didn't realize it, said Researchers. Typically, Medicaid eligibility lasts for one year before needing to be renewed.
The growth the disconnect suggests a “missed opportunity to promote continuity of care during the pandemic, as some beneficiaries did not appear to understand that their Medicaid coverage had remained in place for more than 2 years without requiring eligibility.” new determination,” the researchers said.
“Given the research evidence that changes cover – the so-called “disengagement” – has many negative effects on finances and health, future policy efforts to promote continued coverage must be clearly communicated to patients,” they continued.
Further research has found Medicaid members were confused regarding continued enrollment and remained uncertain about their coverage through new determinations. The majority of Americans who lost coverage were not because of actual ineligibility, but for procedural reasons, such as missing or unclear documentation.
With repress these procedural dismissalsThe Biden administration has also taken some steps to ease access to Medicaid coverage.
Starting this year, all states are required to provide 12 months of continuous coverage to children participating in safety net insurance programs. And last month, regulators finalized a rule aimed at simplify Medicaid enrollment and renewal.