Idaho dropped nearly 10,000 people from its Medicaid program during the COVID-19 public health emergency, a move federal officials say was improper, NPR and Kaiser Health News reported Feb. 27.
According to emails obtained by Kaiser Health News, Idaho Medicaid officials began disenrolling members when mail sent to them was returned as undeliverable, and attempts to confirm they still lived in the state failed.
CMS said the state acted improperly by disenrolling individuals it could not contact, but Idaho officials maintain they did their due diligence to confirm individuals were still living in the state.
Idaho reinstated Medicaid benefits for 6,400 of the beneficiaries it could not contact.
The difficulty reaching Medicaid beneficiaries in Idaho could foreshadow the administrative headaches facing state Medicaid agencies as they prepare toredetermine the eligibility of Medicaid beneficiaries for the first time since the public health emergency began.
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