August 29, 2022

A webinar offered by DoH for advocates who represent providers who serve Medicaid clients just concluded.  The topic was the eventual unwinding of the (federal) Public Health Emergency; the discussion was about how the Department is preparing for and planning to communicate with impacted beneficiaries, about the end of the Emergency.

As you know, the (federal) PHE has been in effect since March 2020.  It is expected to be in effect at least until the end of this calendar year however,  DoH has been doing extensive planning particularly because the Department will have to re-determine eligibility for all beneficiaries.  Note:  Here in NY, various federal waivers designed to ensure continuous coverage for those who needed it and easy enrollment for those who needed it yielded 1.5 M additional enrollees since March 2020.  To complicate things further, many existing Medicaid enrollees have never had to enroll before, while others who were used to re-enrolling each year may be out of practice after years of not having to do so.  This will be a major challenge for everyone.

We direct your attention to slides 4-6, 7, 9, 10 and 11 in the attached Power Point presentation.