Medicaid members face changes as COVID-19 health emergency ends

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress enacted protections that prevented Medicaid members from losing coverage. Now, those pandemic protections are coming to an end.

“Before it was kind of like, if you didn’t take any action, nothing was going to happen,” Katie Charleson, Communications Officer for Nevada Health Link said.

“But now, if you don’t take action, you could probably lose your coverage.”

That means, if you no longer qualify for Medicaid or you don’t actively renew your policy, you will no longer receive Medicaid benefits.

“People really need to pay attention to their redetermination date, their renewal date,” Charleson said.

The best thing you can do is check your insurance status and update your contact information.

While this may be a surprise to Medicaid members, Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell the St. Mary’s Urgent Care Medical Director, says she knew the public health emergency would come to an end.

“With vaccines and other measures to really keep people healthy, this was expected,” Dr. Curry-Winchell said.

She says the COVID-19 virus is not going away, even if the title of pandemic is. That means we need to learn to live with it.

“Each organization and hospital system will have to figure out how they can best serve their community,” Dr. Curry-Winchell said.

Medicaid will start making redeterminatons April 1st and members could start to lose coverage on June 1st. If you know you are going to lose coverage, Charleson suggests looking at Nevada Health Link.

It’s a health insurance exchange subsidized by the state.

“Insurance is so important. I think the last couple years have taught us that, that no matter how healthy you are, something could happen,” Charleson said.

“So, make sure you continue to be insured.”

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