Fiscal year for Medicaid ended
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When the fiscal year for Medicaid ended on June 30th, directors were surprised to see a drop in enrollment for the first time in almost 10 years. In conjunction with that drop was the smallest spending increase – of just 2.9% – for the program during the same time period.
Seventy-five percent of the states cited the reason for the decreased enrollment as tighter citizenship documentation requirements. The 0.5% decline resulted from a change last year that required Medicaid applicants to submit documentation – a driver’s license or birth certificate, for example – proving they are legal citizens of the United States. Before this change, applicants merely had to check a box.
However, the director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations disputed that information. Instead, they claim a strong economy kept the numbers of people needing to enroll to a minimum.
The spending increase was caused primarily by an increase in reimbursements to care providers in a number of the states, including Connecticut. Officials from Kansas also complained that the documentation changes increased their administrative costs.
