stop sharing the information<\/a> with immigration authorities.\n <\/p>\n\n State Medicaid agencies use databases maintained by the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security to verify enrollees\u2019 immigration status.\n <\/p>\n
\n If states need to go back to individuals to reverify their citizenship or immigration status, it could lead some to fall off the rolls unnecessarily \u2014 for example, if they don\u2019t see a letter requesting paperwork or fail to meet a deadline to respond.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI am not sure that evidence suggests there really is a need for this\u201d extra verification, said Marian Jarlenski, a health policy professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.\n <\/p>\n
\n In its August press release, CMS said it\u2019s asking states to verify eligibility for enrollees whose immigration status could not be confirmed via federal databases. \u201cWe expect states to take quick action and will monitor progress on a monthly basis,\u201d the agency said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Leonardo Cuello, a research professor at Georgetown University\u2019s Center for Children and Families, called the CMS order to states \u201cunprecedented\u201d in the Medicaid program\u2019s 60-year history.\n <\/p>\n
\n He said the federal government may have been unable to verify certain individuals\u2019 immigration status because names were misspelled or outdated, such as when a beneficiary is identified by their maiden instead of married name. The names may also include people helped by Emergency Medicaid, a program that covers the cost of hospital emergency services, including labor and delivery, for people regardless of immigration status.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cCMS is conducting pointless immigration status reviews for people whose hospital bills were paid by Emergency Medicaid,\u201d Cuello said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The verification checks create an added burden for state Medicaid agencies that are already busy preparing to implement the tax and policy law Trump signed in July. The measure, which Republicans call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, makes many changes to Medicaid, including adding a work requirement in most states starting by 2027. The law also requires most states to more frequently check the eligibility of many adult Medicaid enrollees \u2014 at least twice a year.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI fear states may do unnecessary checks that create a burden for some enrollees who will lose health coverage who should not,\u201d Cuello said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a whole lot of work for CMS and states for very little pay dirt.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Cuello said the effort may have \u201cgreater political value than actual value.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Brandon Cwalina, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which runs Medicaid in the state, said the state already requires every Medicaid applicant to verify their citizenship or, where applicable, their eligible immigration status.\n <\/p>\n
\n However, he said, the directive issued by CMS \u201cconstitutes a new process, and DHS is carefully reviewing the list in order to take appropriate actions.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n If a lawful resident does not have a Social Security number, the state confirms their legal status by checking a database from Homeland Security, as well as verifying specific immigration documents, he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Other state Medicaid agencies said they also needed to regroup before reaching out to enrollees.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cOur teams just received this notice and are working through a process by which we will perform these reviews,\u201d Jennifer Strohecker, then Utah\u2019s Medicaid director, told a state advisory board in August.\n <\/p>\n
\n Renuka Rayasam and Rae Ellen Bichell contributed reporting.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration has ordered states to investigate certain individuals enrolled in Medicaid to determine whether they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-252430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}