Nearly 300 people with developmental disabilities received letters earlier this year informing them they were no longer eligible for certain Medicaid programs and would be booted from their health insurance and community-based services.
But they were still eligible. The Maryland Department of Health had messed up.
Since then, following a “full and final review” in July, the health department said in a statement that it has reinstated 271 people in Medicaid Waiver programs run by the Developmental Disabilities Administration. Those Marylanders were inappropriately disenrolled, the department said, after staffers erroneously determined they no longer met the programs’ asset eligibility requirements.
Advocates for people with developmental disabilities and their families who raised concern about the disenrollment this summer said they’re grateful the health department doubled back to make sure staffers made the right call in certain cases. But many remain unnerved by the mistake, which panicked families and left them scrambling to figure out how to care for their vulnerable loved ones without the health coverage or help provided by the programs.