Texas has dropped tens of thousands from Medicaid coverage due to processing delay

New data released by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission shows that the state has fallen behind processing Medicaid health insurance applications — likely leaving tens of thousands of Texans without coverage through no fault of their own.

The data show that Texas currently has a backlog of more than 54,000 Medicaid applications that were submitted in or before March. Meanwhile, a separate commission study found that nearly a quarter of Medicaid applications processed in August were substantially delayed.

Such long delays in Medicaid application processing can have grave health and financial consequences for families trying to navigate the healthcare system. Of the 770,000 Medicaid enrollees due for renewal in August, some 247,000 applications have not yet been processed, according to the HHSC numbers.

The current processing backlog also comes in the wake of Texas’ decision to begin dropping people whom it suspected had become ineligible for Medicaid from the program’s rolls over the summer. The state had automatically renewed residents’ Medicaid coverage during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health experts warned that some of the people dropped from the rolls may still be eligible for Medicaid due to problems with the state’s data. What’s more, experts cautioned that many people wouldn’t know that they were being dropped from the program and losing insurance coverage.

According to data collected by the health policy research group KFF, roughly 600,000 Medicaid
recipients under the age of 65 have lost their Medicaid insurance since June — and that some 85%
percent of those now-former Medicaid recipients are children.

That data suggest that children might also be disproportionately affected by the backlog in
Medicaid applications as well.

“Texas kids should not be stuck month after month waiting to find out if they can go see their
doctor,” Diana Forester, director of health policy at Texans Care for Children, said in an emailed
statement. “When kids are eligible for health insurance and their families have jumped through
every hoop the state puts in front of them, our state leaders need to make sure those applications
are processed on time so kids can go to the doctor or get their medications.”

Texas is already the most uninsured state in the country. Nearly one in five residents go without any kind of medical coverage. Texas also is one of just ten states that has not expanded its Medicaid
coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter| Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Related Stories

Texas’ years-long refusal to accept the Medicaid expansion has dire consequences for the working poor

Texas is the nation’s most uninsured state, and San Antonio residents live with the consequences of leaders’ refusal to take federal money to expand coverage.

Texas children still in peril when it comes to getting healthcare

Texas’ culling of the Medicaid rolls started in June in an effort to drop people who became ineligible for Medicaid during the pandemic’s automatic renewal period.

Confusion and stress abound for 500,000 Texans bumped from Medicaid

Continuous Medicaid coverage ended in April. Many of the roughly half-million people stripped from the rolls don’t even know they’ve lost coverage yet.

New Texas law will punish dog owners who fake service animal capabilities with $1K fine

Violators could also get up to 30 hours of community service if they’re found out.

Democrats ask White House to halt Texas’ purge of people from Medicaid rolls

Since April, almost a million Texans have lost access to Medicaid, twice the amount of any other state, according to the lawmakers’ letter.

Texas near bottom of U.S. states for health care, study finds

Although Texas has above-average medical facilities, they’re increasingly hard to access, according to the report.

Federal complaint faults Texas Medicaid software glitches for removal errors

Health care advocates have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Deloitte software errors they say disenrolled qualified Medicaid participants.

Poor People’s Campaign looks to mobilize Texas voters ahead of November election

The group will march on the Texas Capitol and 30 other statehouses on March 2.

Despite warnings, Texas rushed to remove millions from Medicaid. Eligible residents lost care.

Texas officials acknowledged some errors after they stripped Medicaid coverage from more than 2 million people, most of them children. A ProPublica and Texas Tribune review of records shows that these mistakes and others were preventable.

This article appears in Sep 6-19, 2023.