Christine Osterlund, deputy director of Medicaid operations at Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said 100,000 Kansans in Medicaid could lose services with resumption of eligibility assessments put on hold during the pandemic. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Kansas is close to determining who will remain eligible for Medicaid after months of glitches and ongoing confusion over how to reapply. Current estimates suggest thousands of Kansans covered during the pandemic will be removed from the system, and health care advocates warn qualified applicants will be kicked off because of processing problems that are out of their hands.
Christine Osterlund, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s deputy secretary, said the final Medicaid review mailings have been sent out, giving lawmakers at a health care committee meeting an updated report Friday.
“We are actually getting to the end,” Osterlund said.
The state started the Medicaid review process in April 2023, following the end of pandemic-era protections. During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal “continuous coverage” provisions meant Medicaid administrators couldn’t end health care eligibility unless the person in question moved away, died or asked to end coverage.