Application backlog grew from December to January
states from kicking people off of Medicaid, even if they were no longer eligible. When that federal legislation expired in April 2023, states began reassessing people’s eligibility in a process called unwinding. It’s beenthat staff has moved aggressively to reduce the number of applications in the queue. The good news is that the maximum wait for an application to be assigned to an eligibility worker has gone down – from 120 days in November to less than 40 days in December.
Most Medicaid recipients in Texas are kids, and 65% of people kicked off Medicaid since last April were children. Prior to unwinding, it would have been difficult to directly compare how efficiently states automatically renew coverage, but as part of the process states have reported their “” renewal rates, meaning the percentage of applications that are renewed automatically based on data. Now, it’s clear that TexasThe joint caucus letter demanded an answer from HHSC on that point: Why does our system renew eligibility for so few people?the low renewal rate is a side effect of the state’s approach.
The letter penned by the caucuses made several other demands, some of which HHSC met. One demand HHSC has so far refused sticks out: The letter called for HHSC to request a waiver from the federal Medicaid agency – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – to temporarily extend children’s Medicaid for kids in limbo during unwinding.
Where does that leave us? Lawmakers in the two caucuses want to know “the full range of investments and policy changes needed to maintain a high-performing eligibility system,” per the letter. We asked HHSC what some of those investments and policy changes might be. Young answered that the 88th Legislature approved 25% salary increases for eligibility staff, plus more than 600 temporary staff to help with unwinding.
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