Utah has been planning for this for over a year
Salt Lake City—On December 23, 2022, Congress approved and the President signed into law the FY 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill. While several key provisions of this bill affect the Medicaid program, an important provision of Congress’ plan decouples the federal public health emergency (PHE) and Medicaid’s continuous enrollment policy.
While the federal PHE will stay in place, this plan establishes April 1, 2023, as the end of the continuous enrollment requirement for Medicaid.
Utah Medicaid has been preparing for the end of the continuous Medicaid enrollment for over a year and is now reviewing its planned system programming, communication, and other preparations to respond to this update.
It is critical that those who are eligible for Medicaid remain covered and have access to the benefits and services they need. Having a clear end date of continuous eligibility and enrollment gives the state certainty and advanced notice to implement the plan to wind down this requirement.
Today’s passage of these policies in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill allows Medicaid members, Medicaid providers, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and the Utah Department of Workforce Services time to finalize preparations for the unwinding of continuous Medicaid eligibility, which has been in place since the start of the pandemic.
Medicaid provides vital healthcare to vulnerable and low-income Utahns of all ages statewide. Enrollment in Utah Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has grown by 64% during the pandemic, with more than 509,500 members on these programs in December 2022.
Information on Medicaid’s Unwinding Plan can be found here.