VIRGINIA – Protections during the COVID-19 pandemic that prevented states from ending someone’s Medicaid coverage if they no longer qualified have now come to an end.
Because of that, officials across the country including here in Virginia, have now resumed the annual process of recertifying Medicaid recipients’ eligibility.
Del. Sam Rasoul says he pushed hard for Medicaid-related bills in the General Assembly and says the continuous eligibility during the pandemic was a way for the federal government to help states.
“The federal government decided to assist the states and say ‘We are going to ensure that people are not taken off of the Medicaid role to make it easier to manage during this time,’” Rasoul said.
Officials say that nearly 300,000 people in the Commonwealth are expected to lose their Medicaid eligibility during this time.
Rasoul says that during this 14-month process of ‘unwinding’ these COVID-19 era protections, they want to make sure that there is no lapse in coverage.
“We want to make sure that all of these folks that now will roll off will now find coverage elsewhere that’s affordable,” he said.
Rasoul says Roanoke is expected to be hit hard by this — which is why he urges people to take action to find out their coverage status.
“If they contact you and say ‘Hey, we need more information, we need to know if you’re still eligible,’ and you ignore it, you may just be dropped,” he said.
Officials are asking people to update their contact information to make sure eligible Virginians continue to receive Medicaid coverage.
You can do this by calling Cover Virginia, which provides information about Medicaid and other health insurance programs in Virginia, or contacting your local Department of Social Services, your health plan manager or going to commonhelp.virginia.gov
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