Michigan extends Medicaid renewal deadline, offering grace period until end of July
Nearly 218,000 Michiganders were given a June 30 deadline to re-enroll in Medicaid or risk losing coverage under a national effort that will take a year to complete.
So far, the response has been "less than we had hoped," said Bob Wheaton, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The department announced Thursday that it will extend the deadline to submit documents by one month — until the end of July — for any enrollee with a June 30 cutoff date.
Renewals for traditional Medicaid and the Healthy Michigan plan are staggered and will take place every month starting in June and continuing through May 2024, until all 3 million people in the state enrolled in the plans have had a chance to renew. Anyone who doesn't renew by the deadline will lose coverage.
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It’s all part of the federal "unwinding of Medicaid," or Medicaid redetermination. What it means is that for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, people who have had their Medicaid insurance coverage automatically renewed each year will have to reapply to continue their coverage.
Those whose income has risen beyond eligibility requirements or who now qualify for employer-based insurance plans may be dropped from the program altogether. But some people who remain eligible likely will slip through the cracks and be taken off the Medicaid rolls — just because they didn't get the paperwork or didn't understand what to do with it.
State health leaders: Re-enroll, even if you don't think you're eligible
Elizabeth Hertel, director of the state health department, said in a statement that she's pleased the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is allowing states to extend the June deadline to give people more time.
“We want to be sure that as many Michiganders as possible can continue to receive Medicaid coverage so that they can keep their families healthy,” Hertel said.
Medicaid beneficiaries who received renewal packets with a deadline of June 30 are encouraged to complete and return their forms as soon as possible, even if they do not believe they are still eligible for coverage.
That's because some members of a household may still be able to get benefits even if others are ineligible. For example, a child may be covered by MiChild even if a parent is not eligible for other Medicaid programs. Or some Michiganders may have income that is over the income limit for one program and still be able to obtain health care benefits through another program.
Beneficiaries can check to see when they must renew as part of Medicaid redetermination at michigan.gov/MIBridges. From June 2023-May 2024, people will get notification on a rolling basis about their three-month window to apply.
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If, for example, your Medicaid renewal month is August, you’ll get a letter in June informing you about the need to reapply for Medicaid. The following month, July, you would get a renewal packet in the mail. And you’d have to submit the paperwork before the deadline in August to keep your coverage.
Dr. Renuka Tipirneni, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan whose research centers on the impact of health care policies on vulnerable populations, told the Free Press earlier this year that the redetermination process might lead many vulnerable Michiganders to lose coverage.
“Many people — potentially hundreds of thousands of people — could lose coverage in this time period,” said Tipirneni, who also is an internal medicine physician at Michigan Medicine. “And that's going be a mixture of both people who are eligible and those who are no longer eligible for Medicaid.
“The concern for many of us in the health care community is to keep people enrolled who are eligible. … This will require people who currently have Medicaid coverage to pay attention to a lot of what's coming up and get their paperwork submitted, which is sometimes easier said than done.”
More: 3.17 million Michiganders must reapply for Medicaid. Why it matters now.
More than 2.1 million people in Michigan are enrolled in traditional Medicaid. Another 1.07 million are enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Plan, according to the state health department.
Altogether, that means about one-third of the state’s roughly 10 million people are covered by some form of Medicaid and will have to go through the reapplication processes within the next year.
More: At least 60% of maternal deaths in Michigan are preventable
Get ready for Medicaid redetermination
Find out which month your plan is scheduled to be renewed online at www.michigan.gov/MIBridges.
Make sure your address, phone number and email address are up to date at michigan.gov/MIBridges or call your local MDHHS office. If you do not have an online account for MI Bridges to access your Medicaid case or report changes, go to www.michigan.gov/MIBridges to sign up for an account. You can also locate organizations that can help you by searching for community partners.
Report any changes to your household or income. You can report changes at gov/MIBridges or by calling your local MDHHS office.
If you get a renewal packet, fill it out, sign the forms and return them by the due date.
If it is determined that you are no longer eligible for Medicaid, the state Department of Insurance and Financial Services can help navigate how to purchase a health insurance plan. Call 877-999-6442 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday or visit Michigan.gov/StayCovered to learn more.
Who is eligible for Medicaid?
Medicaid offers free or low-cost health insurance to those who qualify, depending on several factors, including age, income, disability, immigration and pregnancy status.
For kids, there's the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which provides coverage through both Medicaid and separate CHIP programs funded by states and the federal government. To apply for Medicaid or CHIP plans, go to https://www.medicaid.gov.
The Healthy Michigan Plan is the state's Medicaid expansion plan that includes coverage for people with incomes above the federal poverty level.
To qualify for the Healthy Michigan Plan, you must be a Michigan resident from 19-64 years old, and your household income must be at or below 133% of the federal poverty level, which is about $18,000 a year for a single person or $37,000 for a family of four. You also can't be enrolled in Medicare or other Medicaid programs or be pregnant at the time of application.
Additional programs also insure pregnant women, low-income seniors and others.
Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus. Subscribe to the Free Press.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Medicaid renewal deadline extended until end of July in Michigan
