With millions of individuals expected to lose Medicaid next year, states can engage in a number of effective strategies to reach members and keep eligible people enrolled.
At the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), Medicaid agencies must unwind the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement by processing renewals for all their enrollees. To effectively reach Medicaid enrollees when it is time for them to renew their coverage, Medicaid agencies are working to ensure they have the correct mailing addresses to send out notices and communicate important deadlines. In 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released guidance that included several recommendations for states to collect and process any address changes.
Providing clear notice and instructions for enrollees to update their mailing addresses on state or county agency websites can be an effective tool to help reach more enrollees. It can also equip external stakeholders, such as community partners, with the tools needed to support their clients through the renewal process. Online instructions to update mailing addresses can encourage more enrollees to take action, as well as help alleviate state and county agency staffing constraints by directing beneficiaries towards self-service options.
There are several key elements a state or county agency website should consider including for clear, concise, and effective communication to collect a Medicaid client’s most up-to-date household address. These include:
- clear pathways to take action;
- simple explanations;
- providing instructions in multiple languages; and
- providing external communication toolkits for consistent messaging.
To learn more and see state examples, download the attached memo: “Effective Strategies to Collect Address Changes from Medicaid Beneficiaries via State Websites”
If you have additional questions, or would like to request technical assistance, please contact Miriam Lipschutz, Policy Analyst, at mlipschutz@bdtrust.org or Jamila McLean, Healthcare Policy Manager, at jmclean@bdtrust.org.
This publication was created as a part of Benefit Data Trust’s Medicaid Churn Learning Collaborative. Support for this project was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.