House Minority Leader Tippi McCullough shares concerns with Medicaid disenrollment process

KUAR | By Ronak Patel

Since the beginning of the year, Arkansas has been disenrolling members from Medicaid. At the end of last year, Congress passed legislation that ended the public health emergency that was enacted due to the pandemic. The legislation required that Medicaid enrollees who were only eligible as a result of the pandemic be disenrolled starting this year.

In an interview with Talk Business & Politics, House Minority Leader Tippi McCullough, D- Little Rock, said she has been concerned with how the process has gone.

“The process of forms is taking a long time. Then people are getting kicked off and reapplying to get back on so it’s such a complicated process that people are bound to fall through the cracks,” she said.

House Minority Leader Tippi McCullough shares concerns with Medicaid disenrollment process (ualrpublicradio.org)

Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate

Reps. Tippi McCullough and Ashley Hudson (both D-Little Rock) talk on the House floor March 8, 2023. Both spoke against and voted against Senate Bill 199 on the floor and in the March 7 House Judiciary Committee meeting.

Federal agency asks states to pause Medicaid unwinding; DHS says request does not apply to Arkansas

KUAR | By Tess Vrbin / Arkansas Advocate

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to all 50 states Wednesday, asking some to restore coverage for people who were recently disenrolled for procedural reasons.

The request does not apply to Arkansas, Department of Human Services spokesman Gavin Lesnick said in an email.

DHS conducts Medicaid eligibility reviews on an individual basis and does not require eligibility information for every member of someone’s household to provide benefits to that person, he said.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-08-31/federal-agency-asks-states-to-pause-medicaid-unwinding-dhs-says-request-does-not-apply-to-arkansas

Daniel Breen/Little Rock Public Radio

Members of the group Arkansas Community Organizations protest the state's Medicaid unwinding process at the State Capitol on Aug. 22, 2023.

Arkansas Medicaid disenrollment jumps to roughly 140,000

KUAR | By Daniel Breen

Arkansas’ overall Medicaid enrollment has dropped nearly 15% in two months with about 140,000 people deemed ineligible for coverage since April. A report released Thursday by the state Department of Human Services shows 68,838 people lost coverage in May.

States were not allowed to terminate Medicaid coverage during the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, which ended in May. Arkansas began the process of re-determining eligibility in April, when roughly 72,000 recipients lost coverage.

The largest number of people to lose coverage in May were enrolled in ARHOME, the state's Medicaid expansion program. That was followed by ARKids A, which serves children from the lowest-income families in the state.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-06-08/arkansas-medicaid-disenrollment-jumps-to-roughly-140-000

Daniel Breen/KUAR News

Representatives of the group Arkansas Community Organizations display signs with some of their demands for streamlining the Medicaid redetermination process in front of the Arkansas State Capitol on Thursday.

National health advocacy groups ask governor to pause Medicaid disenrollment process

by Roby Brock (roby@talkbusiness.net)

A coalition of 23 national health-related nonprofits expressed concern Thursday (May 11) over Arkansas’ early Medicaid disenrollment numbers and called on Gov. Sarah Sanders to pause the process.

The governor’s office said it is following state and federal law and has a systematic plan to evaluate and assist those whose Medicaid healthcare coverage is being redetermined.

The 23 groups (listed below) include the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, March of Dimes, and Susan G. Komen.

https://talkbusiness.net/2023/05/national-health-advocacy-groups-ask-governor-to-pause-medicaid-disenrollment-process/