State eligibility redetermination processes may be pushing down Medicaid enrollment nation-wide.

Last year, national Medicaid enrollment fell 1.5 million, more than half of them children, and according to a new report from Families USA, much of that decline may be attributable to the challenging eligibility redetermination requirements imposed on Medicaid-eligible individuals by some states.

Those requirements include a 98-page packet that Tennessee sends to individuals seeking to retain their Medicaid eligibility; Arkansas’ limit of 10 days to respond to requests for information to redetermine eligibility; and Missouri’s decision to discontinue using data from other public safety-net programs to redetermine eligibility.

Others point to an improving national economy and new Medicaid work requirements as the primary causes of declining Medicaid enrollment.

Declining Medicaid enrollment can be especially challenging for private safety-net hospitals because they are located in lower-income communities than the typical hospital.  When Medicaid enrollment falls, these hospitals often find themselves serving more patients without health insurance and providing more uncompensated care.

Learn more in the Families USA report “The Return of Churn: State Paperwork Barriers Caused More Than 1.5 Million Low-Income People to Lose Their Medicaid Coverage in 2018.”