Arkansas’ removal of thousands of children from Medicaid coverage this year has raised concerns with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to a Monday letter from the department secretary to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
According to Arkansas Advocate, in Arkansas, 78,506 fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in September than in March of this year, an 18% enrollment decrease, according to HHS data.
Much of the decline resulted from the Arkansas Department of Human Services’ six-month review of the eligibility of Medicaid recipients whose coverage was extended for three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Roughly 420,000 Arkansans retained coverage during that period even if they no longer qualified for benefits because of income or other eligibility limits.
The nationwide Public Health Emergency (PHE) enacted at the start of the pandemic in 2020 ended May 11. In April, DHS began “unwinding” the extension by disenrolling clients the agency considered ineligible.
Some clients made too much money to qualify for Medicaid anymore and others asked to be disenrolled, according to the monthly data reports DHS published.
By Sept. 30, more than 184,500 Arkansans lost coverage because they did not provide necessary eligibility information.
In some cases, the beneficiaries likely declined to submit renewal paperwork because they no longer qualified for coverage, state Medicaid officials have said. But advocates have also cautioned that some still-eligible beneficiaries likely lost coverage because they never received proper notification or encountered problems when trying to return renewal information.
About 35% of Arkansas’ disenrolled Medicaid clients from April 1 to Sept. 30 were children, according to data collected by health policy researcher KFF.
Almost 40 million children nationwide receive Medicaid or CHIP benefits, federal HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in his letter to Sanders. He said he is “deeply alarmed” by Arkansas’ decline in children’s enrollment in these programs.
“Children are more likely than their parents to qualify for Medicaid due to higher income eligibility thresholds for children in Medicaid and CHIP,” Becerra wrote. “This means that as children go through the renewals process, many children should still be Medicaid or CHIP eligible and should not be getting disenrolled.”
The letter included a list of recommendations from HHS to reach families with children eligible for re-enrollment in CHIP or ARKids First, the state’s Medicaid program for children.
“I urge you to ensure that no child in your state who still meets eligibility criteria for Medicaid or CHIP loses their health coverage due to ‘red tape’ or other avoidable reasons,” Becerra wrote.
Arkansas leaders “should jump at the chance to adopt these (suggested) changes and protect children’s health as much as possible,” Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Health Policy Director Camille Richoux said in a statement.
“For example, Arkansas could use the list of families who have TANF benefits to confirm that a child should still have ARKids coverage,” Richoux said, referring to federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits. “That would make it easier for children who we know are eligible to keep their coverage.”
Read more on ArkansasAdvocate.com
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