Democrats blast DHS for Medicaid disenrollments

Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Grant Tennille accused the Arkansas Department of Human Services and Republicans in the state legislature of bungling the state’s Medicaid re-enrollment process.

At a press conference at its party headquarters on Tuesday (Oct. 10), Tennille said Arkansas’ approach to redetermining who is eligible for Medicaid – which was extended during the COVID-19 crisis – was a flawed process in terms of outreach and effort.

“You broke it, you fix it,” Tennille said of Gov. Sarah Sanders and Republican legislators, who hold supermajorities in both chambers. “It is time for this legislature, this governor and this administration to fix what they’ve broken.”

On Monday, DHS reported that it had completed its state-mandated six-month review process of those eligible for Medicaid. In total, more than 427,000 Arkansans were removed from the rolls, including 130,000 children. At its peak, roughly 1.2 million citizens were enrolled in Arkansas Medicaid program.

DHS said the top reasons for case closures include disenrollments based on:
• Failing to send back required eligibility information;
• Failing to return requested information;
• Household income exceeding Medicaid limitations;
• Not meeting requirements for programs; and
• Client-requested closures.

“Medicaid resources should go to Arkansans who qualify for them, and not for those who are ineligible. I’m proud of the work that staff across our entire agency performed over the last six months to ensure that our program is serving only those who truly need Medicaid. And, I’m excited to finally put the pandemic and the special rules that had been in place behind us so we can focus on serving Arkansans under normal eligibility operations going forward,” DHS Secretary Kristi Putnam said Monday press.

Tennille said the lack of determinations made on thousands of cases due to non-responsiveness was horrible policy, and he leveled accusations at DHS and its director.

“You either don’t understand the program you run or you’re lying to the people of Arkansas,” Tennille said.

Tennille was joined by Democratic legislative leaders and community organization representatives at the press conference. He said new laws passed by Republican supermajorities to prohibit navigators and other groups to help guide people through the Medicaid process compounded the high number of drop-offs.

“We made it impossible for DHS to reach out to people who need this coverage,” Tennille contended, citing examples of cases that were closed despite meeting eligibility requirements.

“People at DHS know how to find these people,” he added, citing his tenure with former Gov. Mike Huckabee and Mike Beebe when children’s insurance and Medicaid expansion were implemented. “Before you go taking health insurance away from children, you better know they’re not eligible… They ought to keep all the cases open until government can connect with them.”

“We have heard story after story of Arkansas families and their children being robbed of the stability of continued healthcare coverage,” said Rep. Tippi McCullough, D-Little Rock, who is also the House Minority Leader. “We are already the highest need state, and our policy for the past six months has been to strip the very children in most need of healthcare. We must fix that broken system. Laws can be changed, and this one should be. How can you look at these numbers and not think that the system failed Arkansas families?”

DHS provided Talk Business & Politics this response:

“The Arkansas Democrats’ take on the state’s successful Medicaid unwinding is a gross mischaracterization of the extensive efforts DHS made to ensure beneficiaries were ready and prepared for this process, and it has zero basis in reality. DHS began messaging to beneficiaries more than a year before the end of the Public Health Emergency, and continued this focus throughout the previous six months. Throughout this process, we have reached out to beneficiaries by mail, phone, email, and text, made staff available through a call center dedicated to this effort, partnered with community organizations across the state, placed paid advertisements, engaged physicians, providers, and other stakeholders, and much more. And though we released our comprehensive unwinding plan and publicly updated our progress each month during the unwinding, we didn’t hear a word from Arkansas Democrats until today. They could have helped get the word out; instead, they choose to present a factually inaccurate picture now that the unwinding is done that does nothing but malign the many hardworking frontline staff who truly care about helping eligible beneficiaries maintain coverage.”