Florida Defends Process That Removed Millions From Medicaid Rolls

TALLAHASSEE Amid intense scrutiny, state officials Wednesday defended a process to determine whether millions of people remain eligible for Medicaid coverage and said they were trying to help children find another health insurance if they left the program.

Our main priorities here are we want to make sure that if you’re eligible, you maintain your coverage and if you’re not eligible, that you have alternative options that you can choose from, Casey Penn, Deputy Secretary. of the Florida Department of Children and Families, told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services.

The committee received presentations from the Department of Children and Families, the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Healthy Kids Corp. on what is called a redetermination process that began this spring.

The process was triggered by the end of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency. During the public health emergency, which began in 2020, Florida and other states were unable to exclude people from the Medicaid program for reasons such as failing to meet income eligibility requirements.

Florida’s Medicaid program grew from approximately 3.8 million beneficiaries in January 2020 to nearly 5.8 million in April of this year. But now the state is in the midst of a yearlong effort to determine whether beneficiaries remain eligible, as Medicaid numbers fell to about 5.25 million in August, according to data posted on the state’s website. Agency for Health Care Administration.

Democratic lawmakers and groups advocating for Medicaid recipients have criticized the redetermination process, which has also been the subject of a possible class-action lawsuit. That lawsuit, pending in federal court in Jacksonville, alleges that the state violated due process rights and a federal Medicaid law because it failed to provide sufficient notice of the reasons for terminating benefits. social and on the possibilities of hearings before termination.

Also Tuesday, a coalition of about 50 groups sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis that, in part, called for suspending the redetermination process until changes can be made, such as increased staffing at the centers calls.

Several problems cause families and individuals to mistakenly lose coverage: long wait times in call centers, inadequate staff at the Ministry of Children and Families, inaccurate and difficult to understand language in the administrative forms that families receive and inappropriate use of household information. income to determine individual eligibility, the letter states. This loss of health insurance coverage due to procedural errors and inefficiencies is unacceptable and avoidable.

Many concerns focus on the loss of coverage for children.

It’s as if we are traveling blindly without knowing how many children are without coverage. So there isn’t any type of tracking system? » Sen. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, asked during Wednesday’s meeting.

The Agency for Health Care Administration manages much of the Medicaid program, but the Department of Children and Families plays a key role in the redetermination process. Florida Healthy Kids Corp. operates the KidCare program, which includes providing subsidized health insurance to children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid.

Penn touted the Department of Children and Families’ repurpose efforts, highlighting, for example, what he called robust communications strategies to reach beneficiaries. Additionally, Penn and Ashley Carr, marketing director for Florida Healthy Kids Corp., said agencies try to help children easily transition to other coverage if they leave Medicaid.

In addition to KidCare, some families could also receive coverage through employer-sponsored health plans or the federal insurance marketplace, officials said.

Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Stuart Republican who chairs the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee, said she believes the process is on the right track.

I want to make sure that every eligible person gets either Medicaid or KidCare, Harrell said after the meeting. That’s what today was about.

News Service Assignment Manager Tom Urban contributed to this report.