As a result of the 2023 federal fiscal year omnibus spending passed in December, states are permitted to begin Medicaid redeterminations starting April 1, 2023.
The bill included a bipartisan provision to decouple pandemic-era Medicaid coverage protections from the COVID-19 public health emergency, which is set to end on May 11. In exchange for enhanced federal funding, states have been restricted since 2020 from conducting eligibility redeterminations for enrolled individuals. As a result, Medicaid enrollment has grown substantially.
As of April 1, states can resume the standard practice of conducting eligibility redeterminations. Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) required state Medicaid programs to develop operational plans for how they will implement the unwinding process that prioritizes renewals and must be completed within 12 months.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has projected that through this process, 15 million individuals will lose Medicaid coverage.