Louisiana Medicaid expansion enrollment dips again, continuing months-long slide
Since a peak of 505,503 enrollees in April, the number of people getting health care through the government-financed insurance program has fallen by nearly 55,200 people, or 11 percent, something the
As part of the new enrollment system, the state performs wage checks for enrollees every three months and automatically kicks off the rolls those who don't respond. The state earlier this week sent its third batch of letters to enrollees who appear to make too much money to be eligible, said LDH spokesman
Enrollment has dropped steadily since April amid two rounds of wage checks that resulted in people losing coverage. Johannessen said the drop is likely a combination of continued losses in enrollment from wage checks as well as annual renewals.
Gov.
The new enrollment system, which was installed late last year, was designed to automatically close people out of Medicaid if they don't respond to annual renewal letters. But earlier this summer, after months of the new enrollment system operating, LDH faced a backlog of information being sent from Medicaid enrollees and suspended the auto-closure feature for annual renewals. It kept in place the automatic closures for quarterly wage checks.
"We were concerned some people might be losing health care through no fault of their own, so we're taking a step back, being reflective and ensuring that everything people are sending us is getting processed before we close," LDH Secretary
That move kept 75,000 people from losing coverage immediately. Some people still lose coverage through the annual renewal process, but not because of the automatic closure system.
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