The vetting of 2.8 million Georgians on Medicaid to determine eligibility to stay on the government health insurance program for the poor has overwhelmed state leaders’ staffing plans, agency leaders acknowledged Wednesday in hearings at the state Capitol.
Georgians trying to find out how to stay enrolled in Medicaid have described seeking answers in vain: Caseworker voicemails are full, the Medicaid computer system gives contradictory answers and in-person help is scarce or nonexistent, frustrated enrollees have told the AJC in interviews.
Indeed, after hoping to hire some 500 case workers last year, the number now stands at 1,200 and counting, said officials with the Department of Human Services, which manages the Division of Family and Children Services workers who vet the files.
DHS Commissioner Candice Broce said the agency has been forced to divide its county offices into three groups: those serving a big enough county that they will stay open five days a week, and offices in less populous, often rural, counties that get less. That’s an issue for beneficiaries who often can’t afford their own car and may be tied to hourly work schedules.
“We have some offices that are open only three days because we just don’t have someone to man the front desk,” Broce said.
Hundreds of thousands of Georgians have been disenrolled from Medicaid in the federally-mandated “redetermination” process, as pandemic amnesty for enrollees has ended nationwide. Beneficiaries must resume submitting paperwork to show they still qualify. In Georgia, the vast majority of those who have been disenrolled were never determined ineligible: instead, they were disenrolled for lack of paperwork. Activists fear that’s because many don’t know or they can’t navigate the system.
In addition, the same agencies are rolling out Gov. Brian Kemp’s Pathways to Coverage Medicaid program, which aims to offer coverage to poor Georgia adults who perform state-specified activities 80 hours a month. Enrollment is low, about 3,000 enrolled in the first six months compared to 370,000 Kemp aides meant the program to serve.
The Department of Community Health oversees Medicaid, working with DHS. DCH Commissioner Russel Carlson told the legislators Wednesday that the agencies were facing several huge tasks all at the same time.
“We are trying to double down for our outreach for Pathways,” he said, holding events to tell people about the program.
The officials pointed out some efforts the state is making to cope with the problems. Starting this year, the state will keep children under 19 on Medicaid for one year even though they’ve been disenrolled.
Some of the added hiring is being funded with federal pandemic emergency funds that Washington put under the control of Kemp. He directed $54 million to help bolster the Medicaid efforts.
Broce said that even after hiring more than 1,000 workers at the state last year, she would still like to see perhaps another 200, if the matching federal funding can keep up with that number.
But the troubled Medicaid customer service computer system, called Gateway, is not slated for an overhaul at this time, according to the presentations by Broce and Carlson.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been corrected to note that the number of Georgians whose Medicaid files are being re-evaluated is 2.8 million.
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