Arkansas has completed its Medicaid unwinding process, one of the first states to do so.
CMS allowed states 12 months to complete the unwinding process, but Arkansas planned to redetermine eligibility for its Medicaid recipients in six months, the fastest timeline of any state.
In an Oct. 9 news release, the state's department of human services said it had completed the redetermination process and individuals who believe their coverage was wrongly terminated can request to have their coverage reinstated.
"I'm proud of the work that staff across our entire agency performed over the last six months to ensure that our program is serving only those who truly need Medicaid," Arkansas DHS Secretary Kristi Putnam said in a news release. "And I'm excited to finally put the pandemic and the special rules that had been in place behind us so we can focus on serving Arkansans under normal eligibility operations going forward."
According to KFF, the state disenrolled at least 373,900 people from Medicaid coverage and renewed coverage for 252,700 people during the unwinding process. Of those disenrolled, 77 percent had their coverage terminated for procedural reasons, rather than being determined ineligible for the program.
According to data from Arkansas' DHS, the most common reasons beneficiaries had their coverage terminated in September were failure to return renewal forms and failure to return requested information.