ATLANTA — More than 550,000 people in Georgia have been removed from Medicaid through the post-pandemic eligibility redetermination process known as “unwinding,” a state official told lawmakers on Monday.
The “unwinding” process was initiated by the federal government to redetermine the eligibility of all Medicaid recipients after people had automatically remained enrolled, whether they were eligible, under COVID provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.
That process began last year, and has a deadline of May of this year for all 50 states to complete. In Georgia, about 2.8 million people on Medicaid need to have their cases assessed.
Speaking to the Georgia House Appropriations Committee on Monday, Georgia Department of Human Services Commissioner Candice Broce provided updated numbers on the state’s redetermination process.
She said so far:
550,444 Medicaid recipients have had their enrollment terminated
543,967 people have been determined to still be eligible and had their enrollment renewed
Broce did not have a breakdown available on the split in determinations between how many people were removed from Medicaid because they are no longer eligible and how many people may have been removed for clerical reasons — such as not having submitted correct paperwork, not having been in contact with the state or other issues.
The DHS commissioner said she had seen internal information indicating a “dramatic increase in people signing up through the Federally Facilitated Marketplace,” the private health insurance options people generally access via healthcare.gov through Obamacare. Broce said she sees this as “probably a big chunk of what we’re seeing in overall terminated coverage.”
According to the numbers provided by Broce, about 1.7 million people in Georgia would still need their eligibility redetermined by the May deadline.
Federal data released back in December showed Georgia had dropped the third-most children from Medicaid via “unwinding.” That prompted a letter from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Xavier Becerra to Gov. Brian Kemp, urging the governor “to ensure that no child in your state who still meets eligibility criteria for Medicaid or CHIP loses their health coverage due to ‘red tape’ or other avoidable reasons as all states ‘unwind’ from the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision that was in place during much of the COVID-19 public health emergency.”
The Governor’s Office said at that time:
“We are following the process initiated and mandated by the Biden-Harris administration, which has once again missed an opportunity to urge families to fill out their paperwork. Georgia has taken considerable action to streamline processes; utilize innovations, Georgia-centric solutions, and waivers to benefit Medicaid recipients; and just today announced the use of $54 million to further that work as we partner with community-level stakeholders and medical service providers. Rather than diminish the important work being done by dedicated and tireless caseworkers and pit states against one another, we hope Secretary Barrera joins us in our efforts to encourage families who are going through this federally initiated process to complete the paperwork required by the same federal process to remain covered.”