Medicaid eligibility reviews put low-income Nevadans at risk of losing coverage
Nevada is reviewing Medicaid eligibility for more than 900,000 people as part of the unwinding process of federal laws that prevented states from kicking people off the rolls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There’s one significant issue: Some residents, including nearly 300,000 lowincome Nevadans enrolled in Medicaid during the health crisis, might not realize that there is an annual eligibility renewal process, officials said.
Shannon Litz, a public information officer for the state Department of Health and Human Services, urges those enrolled in Medicaid, the nation’s public health insurance program for people with low income, to go online to dhcfp.nv.gov/updatemyaddress and update their contact information, because some people are being kicked off the rolls when they can’t be reached.
You can also call to update your address via telephone at 702-4861646 or 1-800-9920900; or update by visiting one of
12 regional offices throughout the valley.
Locations can be found at dwss.nv.gov/contact/welfare_district_offices-south.
States are in the beginning stages of the 12-month unwinding period in which officials are confirming Medicaid eligibility compliance of beneficiaries, Litz said. Previously, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act mandated states keep Medicaid recipients continuously enrolled without needing to go through the renewal steps.
The state will mail out eligibility packets over the next 12 months and expects some recipients will have moved during the unstable financial times of the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Nevada had a nation-high 28.2% jobless rate in April 2020 after pandemic business closures and before the payroll protection plan was approved.
As the requirement to reenroll arrives, Nevada was one of 16 states to receive a warning from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about long wait times at its call center, according to The Associated Press. More than half the Nevada callers became so frustrated with waiting that they abandoned the call, CMS determined.
CMS raised concerns that long call center wait times and high abandonment
rates “are impeding equitable access to assistance and the ability for people to apply for or renew Medicaid” and may run afoul of federal requirements.
Similar warnings were sent to 15 other states — Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Utah.
Among those states, the average call center wait time was 25 minutes, and the average hangup rate was 29%. That’s significantly higher than the rest of the states, where the average call wait was less than 3 minutes and the average hang-up rate was less than 6%.
In June, the last month Nevada had available service time data, 56% of calls were dropped by the caller. The average wait time in June was 18 minutes. Call center workers answered 107,657 calls during the month.
The call center has a staff of 277 with a vacancy rate of 19%, Litz said. Operators field calls in
English and Spanish.
Additionally, the division has outreach programs at libraries, hospitals, correctional facilities and partner agencies to meet the community where they reside, she said.
Nevada has managed Medicaid services for residents in Clark and Washoe counties since 1998 and has done the same for the entire state since 2011 under agreements with the federal government.
Disenrollments plentiful
Through July, 131,672 Nevadans on Medicaid have been disenrolled during the unwinding period, but only 6,278 of those were disenrolled because they were determined ineligible, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The rest were disenrolled for procedural reasons, such as simply not knowing they had paperwork to complete.
Immigrants who aren’t fluent in speaking or reading English are the most at risk of losing coverage, health experts say. Nationally, 15 million Americans, disproportionately Black or Latino, will lose their health coverage, Kaiser estimates.
“Procedural disenrollments are cases where people are disenrolled because they did not complete the renewal process and can occur when the state has outdated contact information or because the enrollee does not understand or otherwise does not complete renewal packets within a specific timeframe,” the foundation said. “High procedural disenrollment rates are concerning because many people who are disenrolled for these paperwork reasons may still be eligible for Medicaid coverage.”
People who don’t return their information in time for renewal or who feel losing coverage was a mistake have 90 days after disenrollment to reapply for Medicaid.
There were 645,938 people in Nevada enrolled in Medicaid in March 2020 at the outset of the pandemic. That number peaked at 937,307 this May before the federal government called off the federal COVID emergency, meaning about a third of the 3.18 million Nevadans rely on this coverage.
Roughly 84 million people nationally are covered by the government-sponsored program, which has grown by 20 million people since early 2020 before the pandemic hit.
But as states begin checking everyone’s eligibility for Medicaid for the first time in three years, as many as 14 million people could lose access to that health care coverage, The Associated Press reports.
Litz said it’s too early to determine how many Nevadans would no longer qualify for benefits. Some have reentered the job force and have employer provided coverage. Others who no longer fit into the income requirements for Medicaid could transfer to plans in Nevada’s statebased marketplace.
Nevada Health Link is working to assist individuals who were not renewed into Medicaid to find a plan to remain insured, officials said in a news release.
Nevadans who exceed the income limits to receive Medicaid benefits may be eligible for tax credits or subsidies through Nevada Health Link, they said.
“Our priority is keeping Nevadans insured so they don’t experience a lapse in coverage. Nevada Health Link partners with hundreds of certified enrollment assistants and brokers who are available to meet with individuals at no cost to help them find a new plan through Nevada Health Link,” said Janel Davis, Nevada Health Link chief operations officer. “The best thing to do right now if you are on Medicaid is to update your contact information with the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services and to look out for your renewal packet in the mail.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.