Agency faces staffing shortage tied to Medicaid vetting

The state Department of Human Services reports its staffing has been overwhelmed as it tries to determine whether 2.8 million Georgians are still eligible to receive Medicaid.

DHS Commissioner Candice Broce, speaking at a legislative budget hearing, said that even after hiring more than 1,000 workers last year, she would still like to see perhaps an additional 200 if the matching federal funding is there.

Hundreds of thousands of Georgians have been disenrolled from Medicaid in the federally mandated “redetermination” process, as protections offered during the COVID-19 pandemic end nationwide.

That’s required beneficiaries of the program — which provides health care coverage to the state’s poor and disabled — to submit paperwork to show they still qualify.

In Georgia, for the vast majority of those who were disenrolled, it was because of a lack of paperwork, not necessarily that they were ineligible for benefits. Activists fear that’s because many Medicaid recipients don’t know they have to submit new paperwork or they can’t navigate the system. A DHS spokeswoman said in November that the state was trying to notify Medicaid recipients “in as many ways as possible,” including setting up a website at staycovered.ga.gov to offer guidance about the changes.

Much of the added hiring is being funded with federal pandemic emergency funds that Washington put under the control of Gov. Brian Kemp, who directed $54 million to help bolster the Medicaid efforts.

Broce said that while her agency’s offices in bigger counties remain open five days a week, some in less populous counties are operating on fewer days: “We have some offices that are open only three days because we just don’t have someone to man the front desk.”

GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES State Department of Human Services Commissioner Candice Broce told lawmakers understaffing is so severe some offices in less populous counties have had to cut back on their workdays.