Illinois Health News
The state’s Medicaid agency has started to send notices to certain noncitizens to inform them they will lose Medicaid coverage this fall under federal changes to the program.
Carrie Chapman, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services’ special assistant for eligibility initiatives, told members of the Medicaid Advisory Committee they estimate about 8,400 individuals will lose Medicaid benefits when the rule comes into effect in October.
Those not affected include lawful permanent residents who have met or are exempt from the five-year bar requirements, certain Cuban, Haitian and immigrants living in the U.S. through a compact of free association, pregnant Illinoisans and children, and those in the state programs that provide Medicaid-like coverage for certain noncitizen adults and seniors.
Additionally, Chapman said letters will start going out to all Medicaid adult recipients starting next month to inform them of the pending work requirements and six-month redeterminations set to begin in January.
She said the letter will go out to all individuals, regardless of possible exemptions, in order to ensure everyone is clear on the forthcoming changes and knows where to access resources to assist, if needed.
Chapman said they are also working through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ interim final rule issued earlier this summer for the work requirements, and are awaiting additional guidance on several aspects for implementation.
“It’s going to be important for all of us to talk to each other because it’s not as though on January 1 there’s going to be a system and it’s going to be static,” she told board members. “That system is going to evolve in terms of what the rules are and the policy is and what customers need to do is going to evolve throughout 2027.”
Chapman said the first set of redeterminations will begin early next year, with March 31 being the earliest individuals can lose coverage for failing to meet new requirements.
In other business, Kristin Hartsaw, HFS’ special assistant to the director on medical policy, said they are still waiting for federal sign-off on Illinois’ plan to cover community health workers in the Medicaid program.
She said they did receive some informal questions from CMS on the plan, but otherwise they are in a holding pattern until approval is received.
The Department of Public Health is tasked with creating the certification program, and Hartsaw said the hope is they can begin that in the fall.
“We are just really waiting for that… approval and certification to go live,” she said.