As renewals for the 1.6 million people on the Wisconsin Medicaid program have begun, the state’s Department of Health Services (DHS) has launched a new
webpage depicting the status of renewal activity. For the month of June, the data show that of the 99,000 Medicaid recipients scheduled for renewal, over 60% have taken action to start the process.
Since March 2020, people enrolled in Medicaid were under a “continuous coverage” requirement which meant that states had to keep Medicaid recipients enrolled in the program during the COVID public health emergency, regardless of income or other circumstances that otherwise may have meant they were no longer eligible. Since March 2020, enrollment in Wisconsin’s Medicaid program increased by nearly 450,000 people, according to data on the DHS website.
As the continuous enrollment requirement has now ended, states across the country are beginning a renewal process. Nearly 1.6 million Medicaid recipients in Wisconsin between now and May 2024 will have to submit information to the Medicaid program to determine if they are still eligible for the program’s benefits.
According to data from
Kaiser Family Foundation, disenrollment rates across states range from 82% in Texas to 10% in Michigan. While Wisconsin’s new webpage does not show the outcome of the renewal processing—whether those recipients have maintained coverage or were determined no longer eligible—a separate section of the state’s website shows that overall enrollment in Medicaid dropped by about 53,000 people in the month of June.
DHS’ press release indicates that those who fail to initiate the renewal process can still submit information up to three months past the renewal month to see if they are still eligible.
DHS also has several resources available for assisting Medicaid recipients with information about renewals. For example, hospitals that wish to conduct outreach to their patients may sign up to receive a regular report of their patients that have a renewal due. More information about these resources can be found on the DHS
website.