This reflects about 27 percent of those who have so far been found eligible for a Health Connector plan after being redetermined out of MassHealth. Now about halfway into May, over 2,400 individuals have transitioned from MassHealth to Health Connector coverage for May, and over 900 have enrolled for June. She added, “We’ve been really getting ready for this event for almost the whole three-year period, thinking about all the ways that we can be most responsive when this time period came upon us.” “We know that the Connector is going to be a natural landing place for a lot of folks that may be losing MassHealth eligibility over the course of the next 12 months,” Health Connector Executive Director Audrey Morse Gasteier said in March. MassHealth is working with 42 community-based organizations to do this door-to-door canvassing and host events to get the information out.Īs some residents lose MassHealth eligibility, the Health Connector is hoping to transition them to low-cost coverage through one of its available plans. The program estimates less than 1 percent of calls were abandoned before a caller was able to be helped.Īn outreach program in partnership with Health Care For All is targeting the 15 cities with the highest number of MassHealth members, where “redetermination outreach team members” have knocked on nearly 146,000 doors and spoken to 26,000 people about the process. Throughout April, all mailed and faxed application documents were processed in less than 48 hours with zero backlog, she said, and there has only been a slight increase in calls to their contact center. This includes increasing staffing levels by about 500 people to support the MassHealth Customer Service Center capacity, application processing, and hearings, and a $5 million grassroots outreach campaign in partnership with the Health Connector and Health Care For All.Ībout six weeks into the process MassHealth systems and outreach efforts are still operating as planned, said Elizabeth LaMontagne, MassHealth chief of staff. MassHealth aimed to double the amount of customer service representatives in call centers to 320, hire an additional 100 workers to determine eligibility, 80 to 100 temporary employees to process applications, and use grants to scale up the certified application counselor workforce. Estimates range from 300,000 people to more than 400,000 - the higher end of which the Senate Ways and Means Committee used to build its fiscal 2024 budget, freeing up $1.8 billion that is allocated elsewhere. The number of people that the state expects to be pushed off the plan has been a moving target. The other half of the 2.3 million people enrolled in the program will be receiving a blue envelope containing forms to fill out with their current information, which MassHealth will use to determine if they still qualify.
Budget writers on Beacon Hill are already factoring massive savings associated with lower MassHealth rolls.Ībout 50% of MassHealth members will be automatically renewed.
Hundreds of thousands people are expected to lose MassHealth coverage over the next year as federal coverage requirements in place since March 2020 expired on March 31.Īs the state redetermines eligibility for the first time since the pandemic began, those who lose coverage will need to find new health insurance plans. State officials recently offered a first glimpse into efforts to redetermine MassHealth members’ eligibility.Ībout six weeks into the process, which is expected to take a year, about 70,000 Massachusetts households have begun assessing whether they still qualify for state-funded health insurance.
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