In the last three months, the state of California managed to reduce its disenrollment rate of beneficiaries of the MediCal health coverage program from 20 to 9%, while expanding benefits to undocumented immigrants to provide them with complete service.
During the video conference: “The Impact of MediCal After Redetermination: How Californians Can Renew Coverage,” Hosted by Ethnic Media Servicesthe impact of losing this state health insurance program and the benefits of obtaining it were discussed.
A year ago, the federally mandated California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) launched an annual initiative to redetermine eligibility for the Medicaid health program (MediCal in California).
With one in three residents enrolled in MediCal, the state’s goal has been to keep as many people as possible covered at a time when many other states are purging their Medicaid rolls.
Yingjia Huang, deputy assistant director of eligibility and benefits at the California Department of Health Care Services, said the MediCal re-enrollment period will officially end in May.
“California was able to renew its coverage for nearly 15 million people; and in December we were able to put in place additional federal adjustments that gave us more flexibility to make the renewal process easier.”
He said that although they maintained a 21% monthly rate of MediCal disenrollment, they renewed coverage for almost a million individuals each month.
“In December we were able to automate many things in the computer systems, which helped make processes more efficient and reduce the MediCal program disenrollment rate from 20 to 9% in December, January and February.”
He also said that in January they were able to launch the expansion of MediCal for undocumented people ages 26 to 49, which means providing health coverage for all who qualify for the program regardless of immigration status.
“We went from nearly 700,000 individuals with limited MediCal benefits to giving them full services while we went through the disenrollment process.”
Vilma Champion, director of managed care and enrollment at the health center Northeast Valley Health Corporation (NEVHC) of San Fernando and Santa Clarita, said that with the expansion of MediCal for everyone regardless of immigration status, they hope to provide preventive and primary services to 6,000 new eligible patients.
“Outreach strategies to educate the community about the redetermination process and to enroll the new eligible population occurred via the use of social networks, sending text messages and holding events so that patients could submit your renewal packages.”
At the same time, he revealed that they prioritized outreach to the Hispanic population and immigrant communities.
He said they employed bilingual staff and materials, and partnered with trusted leaders from the Latino and Spanish-speaking community.
Some of Champión’s recommendations to improve the MediCal predetermination and enrollment process were to establish a time period for renewal, and for renewals to be processed as soon as they arrive.
It also recommended reintroducing Saturday hours to increase access and reduce waiting periods when accessing the renewal helpline.
Griselda, a mother of three who lives in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles, said it was quick and easy for her to re-enroll in MediCal with the support of the clinic’s enrollment specialists. Northeast Valley Health Corporation.
“Thanks to MediCal, my children get their annual checkups and I was able to have surgery for an aneurysm.”
She also said that with MediCal, her children have access to dental health.
“As you know, those services are very expensive,” he said.
He added that his 15-year-old daughter almost lost a tooth. “I was afraid that they were going to do bullying at school. So I am happy because with MediCal they have put the brakes on it.”
Fitzgerald Graves, a MediCal affiliate with the African American Network of Kern County, said that after receiving the letter to see if he qualified to re-enroll, he tried calling several times; and sometimes he was disconnected when he was in the process.
“When they called me (MediCal employees) I couldn’t complete the registration over the phone either; and when he did on-linethey asked me for a lot of information that I had already provided them,” he said.
He claimed that a worker eventually assisted him, but it was after they experienced a great loss.
“My daughter Chiara, who is very young, became pregnant and made the decision to have the baby, but she did not have access to MediCal or adequate Medicaid. She didn’t know how to navigate it until together we finally did it.
However, it was too late because they could not get proper medical care, and on January 31, they lost their grandson.
“My story is important because if we had had coverage, a specific gynecologist and constant medical check-ups, my daughter would have known that something was wrong with my grandson, and she probably would have been saved.”
He said they later learned that the baby did not develop due to a lack of nutrients such as folic acid.
Huang said that first, all MediCal beneficiaries must be served with dignity; and second, he noted that there is more work to do in terms of sharing information in a simpler way.