230,000 WA residents lost Medicaid coverage since unwinding began [The Seattle Times]
Jul. 29—About 230,000 residents have lost access to their Medicaid, or
State insurance officials say it's too early to reflect on overall disenrollment trends because
"The numbers are high — there's no doubt about that," said
"But the fact remains, those numbers are as expected and they are reasonable," he continued. "It's almost right on as predicted."
Of the roughly 230,000 Washingtonians who lost
Before the unwinding process began in April, about 2.4 million Washingtonians were enrolled.
Nationwide, at least 3.8 million Medicaid members had been disenrolled from their plans as of Friday, according to
According to KFF's tracker, disenrollment rates range widely among states — from 82% in
While
CMS data only includes terminations for members whose plans are due for renewal in a particular month, while the state
If a Medicaid member is due for renewal in December but they moved out of state in June, for example,
"That's why numbers are looking really high compared to other states," Clay said. "I expect us to be somewhere more in the middle once the map gets updated with our CMS reports."
She expects the KFF dashboard to be updated within the next week.
"It'll be hard to say what exactly
Because the state ran renewals throughout the national public health emergency and extended members on a three-month basis if they were no longer eligible or if they didn't respond to renewal notices, state officials expect disenrollment counts to be highest during the first three months of the unwinding, McGill said.
"We're expecting numbers to normalize over the next 12 months to what would be, in essence, a pre-pandemic level," he added.
The state has also seen an increase in new
"We saw about 28,000 new applicants coming into the caseload, which was really interesting and unexpected," Clay said, adding the bump is likely due to the state and health care organizations' increased outreach.
The first renewal letters went out at the start of April, and the first terminations for failure to renew happened at the end of May. Over the next year, the state will continue to send postcards, call and text those whose plans are up for renewal.
For those who have been disenrolled in coverage, there's a 90-day period for automatic retro reenrollment, though the state is encouraging members to visit its website at hca.gov/pca as soon as possible for more information about how to apply or renew coverage.
The state has started an ambassador program to increase outreach among community members and encourages residents to look out for messages from volunteer teams.
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