Medicaid Renewals and DCF Chaos
This week’s Coffee Chat is about the Medicaid Eligibility letters that many of the Medwaiver families are receiving in the mail. Below is the transcript of Scarlett’s advice about these letters.
Transcript:
We’re going to cover something that is frequently discussed in the Medwaiver community: DCF Medicaid Renewals.
First, most parents are unaware that their child’s Medicaid is renewed yearly. Again, this doesn’t mean you have to go through the process of renewing your Waiver, but Medicaid is renewed yearly. I will tell you that I think the reason most parents weren’t aware of this is because they had great support coordinators who handled all of it for them. Kudos to all of those coordinators. You are very appreciated whether you hear it much or not.
Secondly, support coordinators can no longer do this for you. What we’re recommending to all parents when you get the renewal letter is that you go to the website that is listed and you start a new account.
You can link the accounts if you have your old case action number. Otherwise, you can start a new account. Then, I recommend you contact your support coordinator to have them walk you through the renewal or tell you how to answer a few of the questions. Some of the questions are tricky, and when I did the renewal the first time, I was a little confused.
They’ve used different vocabulary and changed things. The layout is better, and it’s easier to track your status there to some extent. But the other thing people are getting is the renewal letters, and then when they go in, it says nothing’s due. If you can’t do anything in the system, DCF and the Agency for Healthcare Administration tell me everyone is getting the renewal letters, so try not to panic.
Go online, start the account, and renew if it will allow you to; if not, stay in weekly contact with your support coordinator and track, keep going in, and open the online account. The status of being able to renew could change, and when it does, you can do the renewal.
Sorry, we don’t have more for you. The new system has just launched, and it’s been a mess. All bets are off on how things are supposed to go because of the new system and mass chaos. It is a government system, so please don’t take things out on your support coordinator. These issues are entirely beyond your support coordinator. They’re beyond APD; if it’s a renewal, they’re beyond the Agency for Healthcare Administration. This is a DCF matter and is so backlogged with calls that you may be unable to get through. I hope that clarifies and guides you as we find more information. We will, of course, share it with you.