More than 2.6 million Michiganders were enrolled in Medicaid in May 2024 after the year-long redetermination, which means the state added more than 400,000 people since before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and dropped 500,000 people since the end.
No one had to reapply during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency orders and by May 2023, when the emergency orders ended, 3.1 million residents were enrolled in Medicaid. Redeterminations for the medical program restarted and after the year-long “unwind” there were more people enrolled than prior to the pandemic .
“This was the largest renewal process our state has ever conducted, with 1.8 million beneficiaries renewing their coverage during the past year. MDHHS employed numerous successful strategies to help ensure those families continued to have health care coverage,” said Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Elizabeth HERTEL.
The MDHHS reported 12,402 people in May were dropped from Medicaid and Healthy Michigan Plan and 1,954 people were found ineligible because of procedural reasons. There were 141,992 people up for renewal during the month.
The MDHHS said there were several tactics used to help the renewal process, which reduced the number of people dropped from the program.
Some of the strategies, which the MDHHS said were approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service through June 2025, included renewing people on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families without requiring a separate determination.
The state health department said they also reinstated eligibility for people who were removed for procedural reasons but made a 90-day reconsideration period.
The MDHHS also allowed an extra month to submit paperwork to avoid coverage loss, simplifying the verification process, and continued the outreach to beneficiaries.
This story appears courtesy of MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.