Maryland data reveals over 34,000 disenrolled from Medicaid in May

Jun. 13—The Maryland Department of Health's recently released data on Medicaid renewals made last month shows that over 34,000 individuals were disenrolled from the program out of almost 120,000 processed renewals.

The department announced a "Medicaid Check-In" campaign in May to encourage residents to manually renew their Medicaid coverage, due to renewal no longer being automatic.

Automatic Medicaid renewal ended when the federal government declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency.

May was the first month Maryland processed Medicaid renewals.

Out of 119,803 processed renewals, 76,104 were eligible to have coverage extended. As of Friday morning, about 9,000 applications were still being processed.

About 24,000 individuals were disenrolled for procedural reasons, such as failure to submit an application or their renewal was incomplete. About 10,000 were disenrolled due to no longer being eligible for Medicaid coverage.

Last month, the state began using individuals' eligibility information from SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to help determine Medicaid eligibility and extend coverage for more people.

A small portion of those who had their coverage extended in May — about 5,500 — did not provide updated information, but were reenrolled based on their participation in SNAP.

The Maryland Department of Health currently did not have renewal data broken down by county as of Tuesday, according to an emailed statement from spokesperson Chase Cook.

The department plans to carry out its "Check-In" campaign over the next year and keep track of Medicaid renewal numbers month-to-month, according to Cook's email, as well as publicly report data each month.

"MDH will be watching numbers closely ... to see if there are trends in disenrollments for procedural reasons and will calibrate outreach as appropriate," Cook wrote.

Ken Oldham, the president and CEO of the United Way of Frederick County, criticized the end of automatic Medicaid renewal and the barriers that may prevent individuals from renewing their Medicaid coverage.

Particularly, if an individual is part of an Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) household — or their household is above the poverty line but they can't afford basic necessities, according to United Way — renewing coverage may be more difficult.

"Any barrier that jumps in the way of an ALICE household getting the services that they deserve and are eligible for — we run into problems of access, and we run into problems of equity," he said. "There are any number of reasons that an ALICE household may not have heard about this enrollment. ... In most cases these days, a lot of these enrollments are electronic, they may not have the technology to complete the enrollment. They may not have heard about the enrollment in the first place."

Dr. Randy Culpepper, the Frederick County Health Department deputy health officer, said the county health department has coordinated with the county's Division of Aging and Independence and Department of Social Services to "ensure that our Frederick County community has the information and local access they need to keep their contact information up to date," according to an emailed statement.

The most recent U.S. Census American Community Survey from 2021 estimates about 1.2 million individuals in Maryland were enrolled in public coverage under Medicaid. For Frederick County, that number was estimated to be about 34,000.

The 2021 ACS also showed estimates for the number of individuals without health insurance.

In Maryland, about 369,000 were uninsured, and in Frederick County, about 14,000 were uninsured.

For the entire state and Frederick County, Hispanic individuals, men living without a spouse, non-citizens and those with less than a high school education were estimated to be more likely to be uninsured, according to the 2021 ACS.

Additionally, individuals whose household income fell between $25,000 and $49,999 were more likely to be uninsured for both Maryland and Frederick County than any other income group.

Oldham said he is firmly in favor of automatic renewal of Medicaid and providing ALICE households and low-income groups with access to programs like Medicaid.

"We're not dealing with light things here. We're dealing with health issues," he said. "There is nothing more fundamental than health for anybody, much less for our low-income households."