well hundreds of thousands of State residents could lose their health coverage if they fail to complete a renewal process by the deadline the risk is the result of an expiring pandemic mandate that required all states to keep people on Medicaid during the health emergency now for the first time in three years those recipients will be reviewed to make sure they still qualify senior correspondent Joanna gagus has that story starting April 1st over the course of the next 12 months NJ family care which is the Medicaid agency here in New Jersey is going to be reviewing all Medicaid members to ensure that recipients still are eligible for their benefits it's a process that states use to complete annually but during the covid public health emergency the federal government relaxed its guidelines for states to prove annual eligibility this is an enormous undertaking that every state is going through right now because for three years states have not had to go through this normal redetermination of Eligibility process which is uh just a normal function of the Medicaid agency this is the biggest coverage transition since the initial open enrollment period in the Affordable Care Act back in 2014.

So under a federal law that was passed in reaction to the kova pandemic states were asked to maintain continue coverage and Medicaid during the public health emergency and in return the federal government would provide additional subsidies to help with that during that time there was no penalty if individuals failed to complete their annual eligibility applications they could remain on the NJ Family Care program but that's changed now as of April 1st and all Medicaid patients will have to complete an application that will be coming to them in the mail seems simple enough right the problem is that during the pandemic so many people were transient I mean people lost their jobs they moved in with family to save money and probably updating their addresses was not a priority for many many members especially low-income members here in New Jersey so the big concern too is that the state does not have or their Managed Care Organization does not have an accurate address there are five Managed Care organizations comprised of insurance companies and medical providers that administer sister Medicaid in New Jersey they're now working together with the state to reach the Medicaid population aware that as many as 350 000 people could lose coverage during this process nationally there are estimates that something like 13 to 15 percent of Medicaid enrollees will lose their coverage so if you take that 13 to 15 percent National estimate and you apply it to New Jersey's 2.2 million members that's how you get to about 300 350 000 they're trying to drive those numbers down which will take an all hands on deck approach doctors and providers should be letting their members know who have Medicaid as their insurance to be on the lookout for their re-verification materials coming in the mail they can also help prompt them to make sure that they're reporting any new addresses that they may have either to their Health Care Organization their um you know their Managed Care Organization or to the state directly so that they get access to those materials applicants will have a 90-day a grace period even after the deadline to return their applications but the concern is the disruption and Care that'll come for folks who don't realize they've missed it if you lose eligibility then there's a chance that there's a disruption in any care that you're receiving from a doctor or physical therapist or maybe long-term care we really don't want to see those kinds of disruptions the message they're driving home check your mail and get those applications back to the state as soon as you get it postcards will go out on the same month your application is scheduled to arrive to give an extra heads up that this application must be returned for NJ Spotlight news I'm Joanna Gagis [Music] thank you