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The lost art of outreach (continued)

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Illinois

More than 47,000 Illinois residents lost Medicaid health insurance coverage this month — joining millions of people across the country losing Medicaid as states ask recipients to prove they’re still eligible for the program, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started. […]

The federal government has estimated that about 700,000 people in Illinois may lose Medicaid coverage by the time the process is complete. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services is more optimistic, estimating that about 384,000 Illinois residents may lose coverage. […]

Of the Illinois residents who lost coverage this month, 13,375 individuals were no longer eligible. Another 34,250 individuals lost Medicaid because they didn’t respond to requests to prove their eligibility or because they didn’t provide the state with all the required information, Munks said.

Another 139,538 people were found to still qualify for Medicaid, and will continue to have Medicaid coverage. The state is still determining whether an additional 13,830 people should stay on Medicaid.

If the state’s goal is to prevent half of the federal government’s projected losses by reaching out to current Medicaid recipients and making sure they fill out the paperwork and file it on time, then the state is now way behind. Better outreach is obviously needed.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 3:34 pm

Comments

Ideally we would just check eligibility of income from the Department of Revenue instead of putting the burden on the person to show to a state agency their income data which another state agency already has.

Comment by Dan Johnson Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 3:50 pm
===Ideally we would just check eligibility of income from the Department of Revenue===

Yeah, we should, but I’m not even sure the state could change that law without running afoul of something else.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 3:55 pm
Revenue would only have last year’s tax information. Employment Security would have much more current data on employment and earnings, based on the UI data system.

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 4:05 pm
= Better outreach is obviously needed. =

It can be difficult to reach people who no longer live at the last address the agency had on file and who don’t respond to phone calls or emails. It’s a longstanding issue that many Medicaid clients don’t contact the agency until after they have already lost coverage. Sometimes (maybe often?) it takes a crisis to get people to take action.

I have been seeing banner ads on websites and in-app ads to inform Medicaid clients about this process for a few months now. Also, this past weekend I saw a billboard - in Spanish - on the west side of Peoria. If the CapFax community has ideas for better outreach, state government ought to be willing to listen.

Comment by cover Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 4:37 pm
Chasing this is an uphill climb, here’s hoping the state can get up to speed real outreach to the good

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 4:39 pm
===It can be difficult===

Yep. And yet HFS promised they’d get it done.

===If the CapFax community has ideas for better outreach===

HFS has been prepping for this for months. They are paid to know how to keep their promises. That’s a pretty weak slap, IMHO.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 4:39 pm
Other orgs are doing their best to get the word out. Two that I know are heavily involved are the IL Pharmacists Association and the 52 clinics that are members of the IL Assoc. of Free & Charitable Clinics.

Comment by levivotedforjudy Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 4:56 pm
===Other orgs are doing their best to get the word out===

I’m sure there are groups out there doing their best. The point is, overall, this is a failure.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 5:15 pm
Bob Adams - good point on IDES. We should pilot that data sharing and permission granting to link benefit eligibility with income data from IDES.

Comment by Dan Johnson Wednesday, Aug 2, 23 @ 10:10 pm
Data clearances in IES already show a caseworker IDES data when they are working on a case. If someone states their income, and it matches what’s in IDES, we don’t need further income verification. No need to send out an info request that can get lost in the mail. IES will just let the caseworker certify once the worker goes through the required screens.

Same with SSA benefits. We can see those in data clearances. SNAP caseworkers also use The Work Number which is powered by Equifax and is a giant clearinghouse of employment data that large companies use. So if someone works for Jewel or Walmart, we see that and then don’t need verification.

One huge issue is self-employment. There is no way to electronically verify self-employment. We need to send something out for the the person to return.

Another issue is that resource verification is now needed again. AABD cases need us to verify bank accounts. Someone on medicare needs to send in a bank statement in many, but not all, instances. The pandemic let us waive resource verification and now that just all got turned back on.

Not defending DHS or HFS for not being ready enough for something that we all knew was coming. Just was a caseworker in a past life and know a little bit about this. This is unfortunately what can happen when we demand means testing for medical programs. I would prefer to have no means testing but no one asked me.

Comment by DHS Drone Thursday, Aug 3, 23 @ 6:37 am