MassHealth renewal/redetermination update

It is not too late for MassHealth members who lost benefits for failing to reapply to reinstate their coverage back to the date it ended, and you can help

What happened?

Almost 300,000 MassHealth renewal notices were mailed in January and February giving 500,000 MassHealth members March deadlines to submit a reapplication in order to continue their MassHealth coverage. The last of the deadlines was March 29, 2015. Within a few days grace period from the deadlines members whose reapplications were not submitted were mailed advance notices terminating their MassHealth coverage on one of three closing dates: March 31, 2015, April 11, 2015 or April 17, 2015. As of May 6, 190,000 people were still closed.

How can people be reinstated?

In late March, MassHealth announced a MassHealth Renewal Extension that will enable MassHealth members who did not apply by the initial deadline and are now seeking enrollment assistance to have their benefits reinstated back to the date they closed, and to have their current benefits continue until June 30, 2015 or the date a decision is made on their reapplication whichever comes first. 

MassHealth Enrollment Centers, Certified Application Counselors, Navigators & Medicaid Managed Care Organizations and now certain legal aid staffers can all help with the renewal extension process. 

Thanks to the renewal extension. the percent of people closed for not taking action is going down, from 38% on May 6 to less than 30% last week.

What can you do?

Please be on the lookout for affected clients and refer them for help being reinstated and getting an extension until June 30 to submit a reapplication. 

We are working on a screening tool that we will post on MassLegalHelp to help identify MassHealth members who may have lost benefits as part of the renewal/reapplication process and can be helped by the Renewal Extension.