Medicaid enrollment down nearly 100K in West Virginia
(The Center Square) – West Virginia has 571,538 Medicaid enrollees in September, down nearly 100,000 from peak enrollment earlier this year.
The highest monthly enrollment came in April when it reached 667,471. Since then, West Virginia and all states have begun a process called redetermination where the state analyzes the eligibility of applicants for the program.
The process of the state’s annual required check of eligibility was halted during the COVID-19 emergency. That redetermination pause lasted from March 2020 to March 31 of this year.
Then, states again became required to check eligibility. During that process, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new rules to prevent those who still qualify for Medicaid from losing services, including allowing managed care plans to help complete portions of renewal forms and allowing pharmacies and community organizations to help with reinstatement for those who recently lost coverage.
As of the start of September, West Virginia has 446,689 enrollees in managed care plans with 25,594 on Mountain Health Promise and 99,255 on fee for service programs.
Through the first three months of publicly available unwinding reports, which monitor how many enrollees retain eligibility, more than 60,000 lost eligibility for the programs in West Virginia with around 20,000 losing coverage during July redetermination and 43,000 in the first two months, though some who lost coverage due to procedural reasons could regain eligibility.
